ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE

PROTECTION STATUS: Threatened (Arkansas River basin population)

YEAR LISTED: 1998

CRITICAL HABITAT: 85,120 acres on 532 river miles in Oklahoma and Kansas designated in 2005

RECOVERY PLAN: None

RANGE: The Canadian River in New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, and the Cimarron River in Kansas and Oklahoma; nonnative population in the Pecos River in New Mexico

THREATS: Habitat destruction and modification from stream dewatering or depletion, construction of impoundments, and water quality degradation; incidental capture by commercial fisherman; drought; and competition with nonnative fish

POPULATION TREND: Formerly an inhabitant of over 1,700 miles of habitat in the Arkansas River basin's larger rivers, the Arkansas River shiner is now almost entirely restricted to about 508 miles of the Canadian River in Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. An extremely small population may persist in the Cimarron River in Oklahoma and Kansas, based on the collection of only nine individuals in 1985.

Photo by Ken Collins, USFWS