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<br />-3- <br />The endangered humpback chub is now known to harbor pure breeding stocks <br />only in the Yampa River of Colorado, but a. breeding population may also occur <br />in and near the mouth of the Little Colorado River. For this reason, no man- <br />produced environmental disturbances should be undertaken anywhere on that river, <br />which also provides good habitat for the reproduction and maintenance of all <br />1 <br />o~a~na,ti~e fishes of this part of the Colorado. <br />w,_ <br />Speckled dace were taken along the river and in tributaries at many places, <br />with one exception this year. Tr~peats Creek seems now to have been taken over <br />entirely by the exotic rainbow trout. In contrast to a collection made there <br />in 1968, no Rhinichthys osculus were secured in 1975 despite repeated and thorough <br />efforts to obtain them. Since. no eomparativ~e study of the many speckled dace pop- <br />ulations between Paris River (jest below Lee's Ferry) and Spencer Canyon has been <br />made, it is not possible to estimate how much of a loss to science. the seeming <br />disappearance of the TQ,peats population may be. It is known that dace in and <br />above Paris River and those in the Virgin River basin, below the area surveyed, <br />represent several distinctive forma. <br />It is hoped that adults of Gila cypha can be taken alive and reared, as at <br />the Willow Eeach hatchery facility. In addition to sound management principles <br />for restoring this species, it would be extremely valuable to have a preserved <br />series of known individuals of the humpback chub in order to facilitate identi- <br />fication of juveniles of the species. At the present time only larger fish can <br />be positively identified because the distinctive hump does not develop until the <br />fish are approaching adult size. Consequently our specimens (juveniles) from <br />the mouth of the Little Colorado River are simply assigned to the Gila robusta <br />complex. <br />I understand (from W. L. Minckley) that Gila elegans, the bonytail~is being <br />cultured at the ~;illow Beach hatchery.. This is encouraging news since this species <br />