Pseudoscaphirhynchus fedtschenkoi

Taxonomy

Assessment Information

Geographic Range

Population

Habitat and Ecology

Threats

Conservation Actions

Bibliography

View Printer Friendly

Taxonomy [top]

Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
ANIMALIA	CHORDATA	ACTINOPTERYGII	ACIPENSERIFORMES	ACIPENSERIDAE

Scientific Name:

Pseudoscaphirhynchus fedtschenkoi

Species Authority:

(Kessler, 1872)

Common Name/s:

English	–	Syr-darya Shovelnose Sturgeon, Syr Darya Sturgeon
French	–	Nez-pelle du Syr Daria

Synonym/s:

Scaphirhynchus fedtschenkoi Kessler, 1872

Assessment Information [top]

Red List Category & Criteria:

Critically Endangered C2a(i,ii);D ver 3.1

Year Published:

2010

Assessor/s:

Mugue, N.

Reviewer/s:

Pourkazemi, M. & Smith, K.

Justification:
The species has not been recorded since 1960s. It is suspected that the species is extinct but more survey work is needed to confirm this.

History:

1996

–

Critically Endangered

Geographic Range [top]

Range Description:	The Syr-darya Shovelnose Sturgeon is an endemic of the Syr Darya River, and is found in the middle and lower reaches from the Kara Darya River downstream (Birstein 1997, Red List of Khazakstan 1996).
Countries:	Possibly extinct: Kazakhstan; Tajikistan; Uzbekistan
Range Map:	Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.

Population [top]

Population:	There have been no reports of the species since the 1960s, and it is believed to be probably extinct. Surveys have been undertaken (Kazakhstan fisheries surveys), and though the data is not accessible, it is believed that it has not been recorded since the 1960s.
Population Trend:	Unknown

Habitat and Ecology [top]

Habitat and Ecology:	Little information is available. Adults were benthophagous feeding mostly on midge larvae and spawning took place during late April (Birstein 1997). The generation length for this species is unknown, but it is estimated to be between 8 to 10 years (Chebanov pers. comm.). The species is thought to be able to feed in the Aral sea (historically) but is adapted to live in freshwater (Bemis and Kynard 1997).
Systems:	Freshwater

Habitat and Ecology:

Little information is available. Adults were benthophagous feeding mostly on midge larvae and spawning took place during late April (Birstein 1997). The generation length for this species is unknown, but it is estimated to be between 8 to 10 years (Chebanov pers. comm.). The species is thought to be able to feed in the Aral sea (historically) but is adapted to live in freshwater (Bemis and Kynard 1997).

Systems:

Freshwater

Threats [top]

Major Threat(s):	The Aral Sea has shrunk by more than 60% from 1973 to 2000 (NASA 2008) and is now hypersaline, and contains no fishes apart from in a small reservoir in the northeast of the Sea. The Syr Darya River has not reached the sea since 1975 due to large levels of water extraction and damming (Zholdasova 1997). Agricultural pollution has also impacted the quality of the water.

Major Threat(s):

The Aral Sea has shrunk by more than 60% from 1973 to 2000 (NASA 2008) and is now hypersaline, and contains no fishes apart from in a small reservoir in the northeast of the Sea. The Syr Darya River has not reached the sea since 1975 due to large levels of water extraction and damming (Zholdasova 1997). Agricultural pollution has also impacted the quality of the water.

Conservation Actions [top]

Conservation Actions:	Full survey work is needed to confirm the species is actually extinct. This fish has been listed in The Red Data Book of Kazakhstan since 1978. Protected areas need to be established in those sites where remnant populations might still exist. Some genomic material has been cryopreserved: live specimens should be collected and propagated in order to preserve more of its genome (Red List of Kazakhstan). This species was listed on CITES Appendix II in 1998.

Conservation Actions:

Full survey work is needed to confirm the species is actually extinct.

This fish has been listed in The Red Data Book of Kazakhstan since 1978. Protected areas need to be established in those sites where remnant populations might still exist. Some genomic material has been cryopreserved: live specimens should be collected and propagated in order to preserve more of its genome (Red List of Kazakhstan). This species was listed on CITES Appendix II in 1998.

Bibliography [top]

	Bemis, W.E. and Kynard, B. 1997. Sturgeon rivers: an introduction to Acipenseriformes biogeography and life history. In: V.J. Birstein, J.R. Waldman and W.E. Bemis (eds), Sturgeon Biodiversity and Conservation, pp. 167–183. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht. Birstein, V.J. 1997. Threatened fishes of the world: Pseudoscaphirhynchus spp. (Acipenseridae). Environmental Biology of Fishes 48: 381-383.. Froese, R. and Pauly, D. (eds.). 2009. Fishbase. Word Wide Web Publication. Available at: www.fishbase.org. Institute for Zoology and Gene Pool of Animals of National Academy of Scienties of Republic of Kazakhstan. 1996. The Red List of Kazakhstan. Available at: http://redbook.kz/. IUCN. 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (ver. 2010.1). Available at: www.iucnredlist.org. (Accessed: 10 March 2010). NASA. 2008. The shrinking Aral Sea. Available at: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=1396. Zholdasova, I. 1997. Sturgeons and the Aral Sea ecological catastrophe. Environmental Biology of Fishes 48: 373-380.

Bemis, W.E. and Kynard, B. 1997. Sturgeon rivers: an introduction to Acipenseriformes biogeography and life history. In: V.J. Birstein, J.R. Waldman and W.E. Bemis (eds), Sturgeon Biodiversity and Conservation, pp. 167–183. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.

Birstein, V.J. 1997. Threatened fishes of the world: Pseudoscaphirhynchus spp. (Acipenseridae). Environmental Biology of Fishes 48: 381-383..

Froese, R. and Pauly, D. (eds.). 2009. Fishbase. Word Wide Web Publication. Available at: www.fishbase.org.

Institute for Zoology and Gene Pool of Animals of National Academy of Scienties of Republic of Kazakhstan. 1996. The Red List of Kazakhstan. Available at: http://redbook.kz/.

IUCN. 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (ver. 2010.1). Available at: www.iucnredlist.org. (Accessed: 10 March 2010).

NASA. 2008. The shrinking Aral Sea. Available at: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=1396.

Zholdasova, I. 1997. Sturgeons and the Aral Sea ecological catastrophe. Environmental Biology of Fishes 48: 373-380.

Citation:	Mugue, N. 2010. Pseudoscaphirhynchus fedtschenkoi. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 21 May 2012.
Disclaimer:	To make use of this information, please check the <Terms of Use>.
Feedback:	If you see any errors or have any questions or suggestions on what is shown on this page, please fill in the feedback form so that we can correct or extend the information provided