Critically Endangered
Syr Darya sturgeon
Pseudoscaphirhynchus fedtschenkoi
Syr Darya sturgeon is a ray-finned fish in the family Acipenseridae (order Acipenseriformes) — Pseudoscaphirhynchus fedtschenkoi, recorded as Critically Endangered.
Appearance
The broad head ends in a spade-like snout. The length of the snout varies greatly between individuals, but is never less than 3⁄4 of the total length of the head or less than 1⁄4 of the length of the whole body to the base of the caudal fin (tail fin). The barbels are not fringed, are placed in a curved line, and are closer to the mouth than the end of the snout.
The Syr Darya sturgeon is considered one of the smallest species of sturgeon with a maximum length of 30 cm (11.8 in).
The length of this filament is around 2⁄3 the length of the fish's body.
The fish was first officially described by Karl Kessler in 1872, from specimens collected by Alexei Fedchenko in 1871.
Range and habitat
The species is endemic to the Syr Darya river drainage, and is found in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It is found in the parts of the Syr Darya river downstream of the Kara Darya river confluence, and the Chirchiq river in Uzbekistan. There is speculation that it may also inhabit large tributaries.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
Adults of the species were benthophagus (bottom-feeders), and feed mainly on midge larvae and other aquatic invertebrates. Due to the loss of its breeding site and damming projects over the length of the river, it is currently considered Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct), as no sightings have been reported since the 1960s.
In crisis
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Syr Darya sturgeon 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 Syr Darya sturgeon, Wikidata item Q1507820. 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.
