Critically Endangered
Chucky madtom
Noturus crypticus
The chucky madtom is a critically endangered freshwater fish endemic to the U.S.
Appearance
The dorsal side of this fish consists of three dark blotches with pale saddles in front of each blotch.
Chucky madtoms can grow up to 7.4 centimeters (2.9 inches).
Range and habitat
The chucky madtom has an extremely small distribution and is only known from two streams in the French Broad river system in eastern Tennessee. In 1940, one specimen was found in Dunn Creek in Sevier County. No other individuals have been recovered from that location despite suitable habitat and a healthy fish population, potentially indicating that the population in Dunn Creek has been extirpated.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
There is currently no information about diet, predators, spawning times, fecundity, or sex ratio. The low species count and protected status of this species makes it challenging for researchers to examine the diet of this species.
Although exact life history details are unknown, the chucky madtom may exhibit some of the same life history traits as other Noturus species, among them spring or summer spawning, low fecundity, cavity nesting, nest guarding, and a diet primarily consisting of aquatic macroinvertebrates.
In crisis
The chucky madtom is a critically endangered freshwater fish endemic to the U.S. State of Tennessee. Threats to the chucky madtom include poor water quality, erosion, pollution (especially sedimentation), habitat degradation, and riparian habitat destruction associated with agricultural land use in the area. Moreover, non-native species such as the virile crayfish (Faxonius virilis) and Kentucky river crayfish (Faxonius juvenilis) may compete with chucky madtoms for habitat and prey upon small individuals.
Chucky madtom 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 Chucky madtom, Wikidata item Q3752822. 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.
