For those who weren't able to attend the Convention last week, I thought it worthwhile to point out some recommended reading that was mentioned in a talk on Owens Pupfish, presented by Steve Parmenter of California Fish and Game. The article, "Species in a bucket" by Phil Pister, was published in Natural History Magazine in January of 1993. It recounts the story of Pister having the entirety of a species in two buckets in his hands...hoping he wouldn't trip as he walked.

"I distinctly remember being scared to death. I had walked perhaps fifty yards when I realized that I literally held within my hands the existence of an entire vertebrate species. If I had tripped over a piece of barbed wire or stepped into a rodent burrow, the Owens pupfish would now be extinct!"

The Devil's Hole pups have about reached that point, at least the phenotype still living in the wild.

That was quite a read, thank you very much for posting it. It serves to strengthen my passion for my life's work.