Endangered
Narrow pigtoe
Fusconaia escambia
Narrow pigtoe, the narrow pigtoe, is a freshwater bivalve mussel found in Alabama and northwestern Florida.
Appearance
Narrow pigtoe has a triangular to square shape with a black to reddish-brown color. Its shell is moderately thick with a white- to salmon-colored interior. Narrow pigtoe also has a rainbow pattern near the base of the interior shell.
Narrow pigtoe reaches approximately 75 millimetres (3.0 in) in length as an adult.
Range and habitat
For most freshwater bivalve mussels, the habitat involves slow to moderate currents in small to medium sized rivers or creeks. As stated before, the narrow pigtoe's habitat is also reliant on whether or not its host fish species are present in the area. The narrow pigtoe is sensitive to ecological disturbances and must have little pollution, good water quality, and a secure habitat to grow successfully.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
Narrow pigtoe siphons water into its shell and across the gills to feed. Adults are filter feeders and feed through siphoning water into the shell.
In crisis
The current population size is unknown, but a survey of the Escambia drainage in 2012 found 166 organisms. This is indicative of an increase in narrow pigtoe species population over time, although this is still unclear. Knowledge of threats to the narrow pigtoe is lacking in general.
Even so, degradation and loss of river habitats, poor water quality, catastrophic events, and invasive species could all potentially pose threats to the narrow pigtoe. A recovery plan for the narrow pigtoe was published on November 13, 2012.
Narrow pigtoe 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 Narrow pigtoe, Wikidata item Q3015674. 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.
