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<br />492 <br /> <br />The StYltthwestern Naturalist <br /> <br />vol. 53, no, 4 <br /> <br />individuals occupying flooded mouths of tribu- <br />taries and larger fish (mean total length = <br />221 mm) occurring in flowing water habitat, <br />including riffies, runs, shorelines, and eddies. <br />Trammel-net sets during our study captured <br />bony tails in 2004 and 2005 at a higher rate <br />during the day (0.63 fish/h, SE = 0.15, n = 23 <br />fish) than at night (0.26 fish/h, SE = 0.11, n = <br />23 fish). Rates of capture of roundtail chubs in <br />2002-2005 were similar in the day (0.50 fish/h, <br />SE = 0.068, n = 123 fish) and night (0.46 fish/h, <br />SE = 0.053, n = 195 fish), and each was similar to <br />the capture rate for bony tails in daytime. Fewer <br />humpback chubs were captured during the day <br />(0.009 fish/h, SE = 0.008, n = 2) than at night <br />(0.019 fish/h; SE = 0.006, n = 7) in 2002-2005. <br />Frequency of dorsal-anal-fin-ray counts of bony- <br />tails were 9/10 (n = 1),10/10 (n = 17),10/11 <br />(n = 5), 11/10 (n = 8), and 11/11 (n = 3). <br />Roundtail and humpback chubs typically have <br />dorsal-anal-fin-ray counts of 9/9 and 9/10, <br />respectively (Douglas et al., 1998), and bony tails <br />are typically 10/10 (Holden and Stalnaker, <br />1970), although 5 of 9 presumed humpback <br />chubs from \VhirlpooI Canyon had a 9/9 count. <br />We captured a smallmouth bass f'vlicropterus <br />dolomitm (330 mm total length) in 2004 that had <br />consumed a bony tail. The partially digested <br />specimen, ca. 225 mm total length (68% of the <br />length of the smallmouth bass), was noted <br />because the caudal fin was protruding from the <br />esophagus of the smallmouth bass. Another <br />predation event was noted in summer 2005, <br />when a smallmouth bass (34] mm total length) <br />captured just downstream of the Echo Park boat <br />ramp preyed on a bony tail that was 211 mm in <br />total length (62% of the total length of the <br />smallmouth bass). <br />Bony tails captured in 2002-2005 with all gears <br />ranged in size ti-om 196 to 336 mm in total <br />length; mean total length was 259 mm and the <br />modal size class was 251-275 mm total length. <br />More than one-half (53%) of bonytaiIs stocked <br />in 2002-2005 that were individually measured <br />before release were ::;225 mm in total length, a <br />size apparently susceptible to predation by larger <br />smallmouth bass. Bony tails of all sizes would be <br />susceptible to predation by larger-bodied preda- <br />tors including the nonnative northern pike Esox <br />Lucius or the native Colorado pikeminnow <br />Plychocheilus lucius. <br />Historically widespread and abundant bony- <br />tails were rare in the Lower Colorado River Basin <br /> <br />by the 1970s, with only a few large and old <br />individuals remaining in main-stem reselVoirs, <br />such as Lake Mohave (Jordan, 189]; Minckley, <br />1973; Behnke and Benson, 1983; United States <br />Fish and \^iildlife Service, 2002). In the Upper <br />Colorado River Basin, bony tails remained rela- <br />tively widespread and common in the lower <br />Yampa River and the Green River downstream of <br />the Yampa River in Dinosaur National Monu- <br />ment from 1963 to 1967, when Vanicek and <br />Kramer (1969) collected 67 individuals <br />>200 mm in total length. During the same <br />period, they collected 49 roundtail chubs <br />>200 mm total length, and 217 smaller chubs, <br />some of which were presumably bony tails (they <br />did not differentiate round tail chubs and bony- <br />tails 200 mm in total length or smaller). By <br />1967-1973, bonytaiIs in the Upper Colorado <br />River Basin were only in the lower Yampa and <br />Green rivers and were rare, with only 36 <br />individuals collected in extensive basin-wide <br />sampling (Holden and Stalnaker, 1975a, <br />1975b). As Behnke and Benson (1983:22) point- <br />ed out, "If it were not for the stark example <br />provided by the passenger pigeon, such rapid <br />disappearance of a species once so abundant <br />would be almost beyond belie[" Negative effects <br />of altered flows and reduced water temperatures <br />downstream of Flaming Gorge Dam were postu- <br />lated as main causes for the demise of bonytails <br />in affected reaches of the Green River, but as <br />Kaeding et al. (1986) suggested, reductions in <br />populations of bonytails also occurred in the <br />Colorado River and other reaches apparently <br />little affectcd by tcmpcraturc reductions or othcr <br />dam-associated factors. Also, the congcneric <br />roundtail chub and humpback chub survived in <br />somc reaches where bonytails were once com- <br />mon, so spccific mcchanisms for the ubiquitous <br />decline of wild bonytails remain clusive. <br />Bony tails stocked from hatcheries into the <br />Grcen River study area suffered a fatc similar to <br />their wild counterparts. We documented that <br />hatchery-reared bonytails survived for short <br />pcriods in thc \vild, but they did not appear to <br />sUl\ive over wintcr because we captured no fish <br />released in 2002-2005 in subsequcnt years. We <br />feel confident in our ability to detect presence of <br />bony tails in our study area because we used an <br />array of gears in a widc variety of habitat types in <br />all seasons except winter. Alternatively, it is <br />possible that most bony tails moved out of the <br />study arca and survived, but additional sampling <br />