Critically Endangered
June sucker
Chasmistes liorus
The June sucker is an endangered species of fish endemic to Utah Lake and the Provo River in the U.S.
Appearance
The fish is dark gray or brownish dorsally, with a white or slightly greenish belly. It is a gray or brownish fish with a paler belly, growing up to about 24 in (61 cm).
Typical specimens range from 17 to 24 in (43 to 61 cm) and reach a weight of 5 lb (2.3 kg).
Range and habitat
The June sucker is known only from Utah Lake in the United States, its feeder streams, and the adjacent Provo River. The June sucker is an endangered species of fish endemic to Utah Lake and the Provo River in the U.S. State of Utah. It lives alongside the Utah sucker, that has a much wider range.
Conservation measures have been put in place and fish are being raised in a fish hatchery for reintroduction.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Habits
It is named after the month in that it spawns.
In crisis
Due to the populations of both fish becoming greatly reduced in the lake as a result of fishing, other species such as the common carp have been introduced into the lake. As a result, the June sucker has become "critically endangered" as the pure species is lost as a result of hybridization with the Utah sucker, and predatory fish feed on its larvae.
June sucker is Critically 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 June sucker, Wikidata item Q630127. 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.
