“It’s just a small fish, without many colors and doesn’t arouse much interest in terms of global conservation”, explains Gerardo Garcia.
The species that the conservationist at Chester Zoo in England is talking about is the tequila fish, which reappeared almost two decades after it was declared extinct.
“Disappeared” since 2003, Zoogoneticus tequila recently reappeared in rivers in southwestern Mexico.
Reintroduction is being touted as an example of how ecosystems and freshwater species can be saved.
Freshwater habitats are some of the most threatened on Earth, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with freshwater-dependent species “extinguishing faster than life terrestrial or marine wild”.
Threats, like pollution, continue to put pressure not only on wildlife, but also on fresh water and food supplies that depend on rivers and lakes.
The local community (people who live near the tequila fish release site in the Mexican state of Jalisco) are playing a key role in monitoring the water quality of rivers and lakes.
Professor Omar Dominguez of the Michoacana University of Mexico, whose team took a lead role in the reintroduction, said: “We couldn’t have done this without the local people — they’re the ones doing long-term conservation.”
“And this is the first time that a fish species considered extinct has been successfully reintroduced in Mexico. So it’s a real milestone for conservation. It’s a project that has already set an important precedent for the future conservation of many of the country’s fish species which are threatened or even extinct in nature, but which rarely come to our attention.”
Although conservationists initially released 1,500 fish, they say the population is now expanding into the river system.
It’s a project (and a partnership) between conservationists in Mexico and the UK that goes back decades.
In 1998, at the beginning of the project, scientists from the Aquatic Biology Unit of the Michoacana University of Mexico received five pairs of fish from Chester Zoo, delivered by English hobbyist Ivan Dibble.
These ten fish founded a new colony in the university laboratory, which specialists maintained there and expanded over the next 15 years.
In preparation for reintroduction, 40 males and 40 females from the colony were released into large artificial lakes at the university, essentially to train captive-bred fish preparing them for a wild environment with floating food resources, potential competitors, parasites and predators.
After four years, it was estimated that this population increased to 10,000 individuals and became the source for reintroduction into nature.
It is hoped that it could be a model for other freshwater species, including the chock, a close relative of the axolotl salamander that lives in just one lake in northern Mexico and faces very similar threats.
This unique amphibian, which according to local culture has healing properties, was saved from extinction, in part, by a local group of nuns who run a captive animal breeding facility.
“This only shows”, says Gerardo Garcia, “that animals can readaptation to nature when they are reintroduced at the right time and in the right environments”.
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