Residents of a small town in western Mexico are celebrating the reintroduction into the wild of the tequila fish — an endemic species saved from the brink of extinction.
The fish, whose scientific name is Zoogoneticus Tequila, was rescued in the 1990s by US and British conservationists who kept it in aquariums and helped it return to its original habitat in the Teuchitlan river.
Children in Teuchitlan, home to about 10,000 people, have been at the forefront of efforts to inform visitors not only about the importance of keeping their habitat clean, but also about the tequila fish.
Photo: AFP
“The children are the ones who approach people on the river bank and tell them that in this river lives a little fish that is unique in the world ... and that they participated in its reintroduction,” said Consuelo Rivera, a 70-year-old retired teacher.
The tequila fish was reported to be extinct in 1998, possibly due to fragmentation of its habitat, pollution and competition from non-native species, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said.
The species survived only in captivity for several years until conservationists, led by Michoacan University, began the process in 2014 to reintroduce it into the wild.
Since then the fish has gone from strength to strength, helped by the last major release of fish in 2018, project leader Omar Dominguez said.
The tequila fish grows to about 7cm and the male has a bright reddish-orange tail.
It shares the name of the world-renowned Mexican liquor originating in the town of Tequila, which, like Teuchitlan, is in the state of Jalisco.
The species has unique characteristics, such as giving birth to well-developed fetuses, which it feeds through a kind of umbilical cord similar to that of humans, Dominguez said.
“It’s an important part of the ecosystem. It’s a carnivorous species and it feeds, for example, on mosquito larvae, which keeps ecosystems healthy for humans,” he added.
There are now estimated to be 1,500 to 2,000 tequila fish in the wild and the species is listed as endangered by the IUCN.
The civil society group Guardians of the River carries out educational campaigns and workshops for children and adults to show them the flora and fauna of the area.
Tourism also plays an important role in the initiative.
Local visitors bathe in spa pools around the river said to have therapeutic properties, and swim with the fish — also known as gallito (little rooster) because of its colorful tail.
“There are a lot of little fish. They swim together with people and sometimes the little fish also start to bite people, to caress them,” said Maria Aurea Martinez, a spa employee.
Jaime Navel, a local parish priest, sees the species as “the little fish that was resurrected, that came back to life.”
“There’s awe and joy in the community,” he said.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
‘DOWNSIZE’: The Trump administration has initiated sweeping cuts to US government-funded media outlets in a move critics said could undermine the US’ global influence US President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday began making deep cuts to Voice of America (VOA) and other government-run, pro-democracy programming, with the organization’s director saying all VOA employees have been put on leave. On Friday night, shortly after the US Congress passed its latest funding bill, Trump directed his administration to reduce the functions of several agencies to the minimum required by law. That included the US Agency for Global Media, which houses Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Asia and Radio Marti, which beams Spanish-language news into Cuba. On Saturday morning, Kari Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial and US
RSS