Bryconamericus huilae

Taxonomy

Assessment Information

Geographic Range

Population

Habitat and Ecology

Threats

Conservation Actions

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Taxonomy [top]

Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
ANIMALIA	CHORDATA	ACTINOPTERYGII	CHARACIFORMES	CHARACIDAE

Scientific Name:	Bryconamericus huilae
Species Authority:	Román-Valencia, 2003

Assessment Information [top]

Red List Category & Criteria:	Least Concern ver 3.1
Year Published:	2009
Assessor/s:	Reis, R & Lima, F.
Reviewer/s:	Collen, B., Darwall, W., Ram, M. & Smith, K. (SRLI Freshwater Fish Evaluation Workshop)
Contributor/s:
Justification: The species is assessed as least concern due to wide distribution and lack of major threats across its range. While the river basin is highly impacted in the lower reaches, the species occurs at higher altitudes, and therefore is not impacted heavily by these threats.

Geographic Range [top]

Range Description:	This species is known from the upper Magdalena River, Colombia.
Countries:	Native: Colombia
Range Map:	Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.

Population [top]

Population:	No population information known.
Population Trend:	Unknown

Habitat and Ecology [top]

Habitat and Ecology:	B. huilae is a benthopelagic (ecological region at the lowest level of water body) species that generally inhabits high altitude freshwaters.
Systems:	Freshwater

Threats [top]

Major Threat(s):	It is likely that B. huilae is threatened by habitat degradation. The Magdalena River basin has a high human population, of about 32 million, which results in major threats such as reservoir construction, interrupting longitudinal connectivity and leading to river floodplain degradation, and large scale agro-industrial projects in the catchment that leads to accelerated aquatic habitat degradation because of increased soil erosion and pesticide input. In addition, large amounts of untreated sewage is emptied into the basins waterways (Junk 2005). Though B. huilae is not known to be harvested, it is interesting to note that catches in the Magdalena River have declined by 78% over the past two decades, (Harvey 1998). It is not clear whether this is due to over-fishing, habitat degradation or both, but it is likely to have implications for other species in the Magdalena River basin. However, as this species inhabits the upper reaches, and the threats are most severe in the lower basin near the river mouth, these are unlikely to constitute serious threats.

Major Threat(s):

It is likely that B. huilae is threatened by habitat degradation. The Magdalena River basin has a high human population, of about 32 million, which results in major threats such as reservoir construction, interrupting longitudinal connectivity and leading to river floodplain degradation, and large scale agro-industrial projects in the catchment that leads to accelerated aquatic habitat degradation because of increased soil erosion and pesticide input. In addition, large amounts of untreated sewage is emptied into the basins waterways (Junk 2005). Though B. huilae is not known to be harvested, it is interesting to note that catches in the Magdalena River have declined by 78% over the past two decades, (Harvey 1998). It is not clear whether this is due to over-fishing, habitat degradation or both, but it is likely to have implications for other species in the Magdalena River basin.

However, as this species inhabits the upper reaches, and the threats are most severe in the lower basin near the river mouth, these are unlikely to constitute serious threats.

Conservation Actions [top]

Conservation Actions:	There are no conservation measures in place.

Conservation Actions:

There are no conservation measures in place.

Citation:	Reis, R & Lima, F. 2009. Bryconamericus huilae. In: IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 19 June 2013.
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