Endangered
Conservancy fairy shrimp
Branchinecta conservatio
The conservancy fairy shrimp is an endangered small crustacean in the family Branchinectidae.
The animal
Conservancy fairy shrimp is an animal in the family Branchinectidae (order Anostraca) — Branchinecta conservatio.
Range and habitat
Even so, the distribution of vernal pool habitats in the areas where the species is now known to occur were once more continuous and larger in area than they are today. It is likely the conservancy fairy shrimp once occupied suitable vernal pool habitats throughout a large portion of the Central Valley and southern coastal regions of California. The species is currently known from several disjunct populations: Montgomery Field Vernal Pools in San Diego County the Vina Plains in Tehama County, south of Chico in Butte County, the Jepson Prairie Preserve and surrounding area in Solano County, the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex in Glenn County, Mapes Ranch west of Modesto, San Luis National Wildlife Refuge and the Haystack Mountain/Yosemite Lake area in Merced County, and two locations on the Los Padres National Forest in Ventura County.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
The cyst bank in the soil may contain cysts from several years of breeding. Fairy shrimp are aquatic species in the order Anostraca.
Fairy shrimp feed on algae, bacteria, protozoa, rotifers and detritus.
In crisis
The ephemeral wetlands that support this network of populations are remnants of what was formerly a pristine vernal pool ecosystem, that has been converted to primarily agricultural and urban uses. Since then a substantial amount of remaining habitat has been converted for human uses. The conservancy fairy shrimp has been classified as an endangered species under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (Federal Register 59:48136. September 19, 1994).
Conservancy fairy shrimp is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Conservancy fairy shrimp, Wikidata item Q4019963. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
