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16 <br />RAZORBACK SUCKER, Xyrauchen texanus (ABBOTT) <br />Distribution and Abundance <br />The range of the razorback sucker (Figure 4) has been markedly <br />reduced because of man-made alterations of the Colorado River system. <br />Early observers reported X. texanus in large numbers throughout the <br />lower basin. Everman [1916] stated that razorback suckers were <br />"rather abundant" in the Salton Sea when it was formed after the <br />breaking of a dike in 1905. ChanierZain [1904] reported that they <br />were "rather common" in the San Pedro River and were sold at nearby <br />Tombstone, Arizona, as "Buffalo". The San Pedro River is now dry <br />during most of the year. Chardiertain [1904] also collected a single <br />specimen from the Salt River in central Arizona. MiUer [1961] <br />reported that they occurred in the Salt River in 1904, near the <br />present site of Roosevelt Dam,. but they had disappeared by 1937. <br />Reservoir impoundments do not affect adult razorback suckers <br />as greatly as they do other endemic species. When Lakes Mojave and <br />Mead were formed on the Colorado River, the Colorado squawfish, bony- <br />tail chub, and humpback chub were drastically reduced in abundance, <br />but the razorback sucker was considered abundant in Lake Mead and <br />common in Lake Mojave [WaUis, 1951]. Jonez and Sumner [1954] found <br />razorback suckers in large numbers below Davis Dam on the Colorado <br />River, but none has been reported below this point recently [MinckZey, <br />19731. As late as the 1940's, razorback suckers supported a commercial <br />fishery in Arizona. One fisherman harvested six tons of the unique