AssetID: 53056128
Headline: RAW VIDEO: Rare Crayfish Bred For The First Time In Captivity Ever In San Antonio Zoo
Caption: A milestone moment for a critically endangered species has taken place at the Center for Conservation & Research at San Antonio Zoo (CCR). Zoo staff have announced the successful birth of 47 critically endangered Oklahoma Cave Crayfish (Cambarus tartarus) in captivity, marking the very first recorded births of this species under human care. Collaborating closely with esteemed partners, including the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Ozark Plateau National Wildlife Refuge, The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, the Nature Conservancy, the Tulsa Regional Oklahoma Grotto, the Subterranean Biodiversity Project, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville, the CCR team has made remarkable strides in unravelling the enigma surrounding this rare species and its pressing need for preservation. The Oklahoma Cave Crayfish, known as one of the rarest crayfish species in North America, faces grave threats from various sources of pollution, including commercial chicken farms, sewage discharge, and surface development runoff, all contributing to the degradation of water quality. Compounded by its extremely limited habitat range – the species is confined to several caves within a single county in Northeastern Oklahoma – its vulnerability has reached critical levels. As the United States Fish and Wildlife Service evaluates the potential inclusion of the Oklahoma Cave Crayfish on the Endangered Species List, it has already been designated as "state endangered" by the state of Oklahoma. NatureServe classifies it as "G1," critically imperiled, while the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists it as "critically endangered" on their "red list." Since the year 2000, Dr. Dante Fenolio, Vice President of CCR, has spearheaded a collaborative initiative. Together, the team embarked on a capture-mark-release-recapture project aimed at determining population size, lifespan, and habitat preferences. Employing innovative techniques, scientists adorned wild crayfish with small, harmless acrylic elastomer tattoos that fluoresce under black light, facilitating individual identification and enabling critical population ecology studies to inform conservation efforts. Furthermore, CCR has successfully established a small colony of the Oklahoma Cave Crayfish within their laboratory, where they are conducting studies on reproductive biology, lifespan, and the development of husbandry and breeding protocols. In a groundbreaking achievement, the lab bore witness to a female crayfish depositing eggs, followed by the successful hatching of these eggs. This remarkable event signifies the first-ever maintenance of this species in a controlled environment and only the second instance of breeding a blind, albino, and "cave-adapted" crayfish. Tim Morrow, President & CEO of San Antonio Zoo, expressed immense pride in the team's accomplishments, stating, "I couldn't be more proud of the team. Their unwavering dedication and passion have propelled them to achieve remarkable milestones in their projects and research, surpassing all expectations. This team, our conservation partners, and the entire zoo crew are literally working around the clock and relentlessly to save species and our planet." The invaluable insights and best husbandry practices garnered from this project will be meticulously documented and published, providing wildlife authorities with an essential tool in times of emergencies or environmental crises. By bringing wild animals into the laboratory and applying established husbandry and breeding protocols, these practices can play a pivotal role in safeguarding endangered species. Dr. Fenolio expressed immense pride in the team's accomplishments, stating, "Once again, they have accomplished something with an imperiled groundwater species that many people thought unlikely. The time, effort, and skill sets necessary are considerable. I just can't say enough about these fantastic people working so hard to conserve imperiled species." He added: "This species really needs our help. Very little is known about how subterranean crayfish make a living. Learning about the reproduction of this species will tell us a lot about how resilient or not wild populations are. It will help us inform conservation policy. This is a significant accomplishment and conservation action step." Matt Fullerton, United States Fish and Wildlife Biologist, commended San Antonio Zoo, remarked, "The successful captive husbandry, and now reproduction, of the Oklahoma cave crayfish by the San Antonio Zoo is an amazing success story. As a species currently undergoing a species status assessment by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, this accomplishment is very important in furthering our understanding of this cryptic, state-endemic species."
Keywords: crayfish,shellfish,freshwater,animals,fish,water,utah,caves,san antonio,photo,video,feature
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