Overview

The upper Colorado River basin, which is composed of the Colorado River and its tributaries upstream of Lake Powell, is home to 14 native fish species, four of which are now endangered. These four fish - the Colorado pikeminnow, razorback sucker, bonytail and humpback chub - evolved in the Colorado River basin and exist nowhere else on earth.

Location

The Colorado River and its tributaries make up one of the world's most colorful river basins. From the high mountains of Wyoming and Colorado, the river drops more than two miles in elevation on its 1,700-mile journey to the Gulf of California. For long stretches, the river is bounded by red canyon walls. River flows fluctuate widely from season to season and from year to year, historically reaching peaks of nearly 400,000 cubic feet per second. It took tough, adaptable creatures to survive in this river system.

Native fish species in the upper Colorado River basin

Only 14 species of fish are native to the upper Colorado: the Colorado pikeminnow, bonytail, humpback chub, razorback sucker, Colorado River cutthroat trout, Rocky Mountain whitefish, roundtail chub, speckled dace, Kendall Warm Springs dace, flannelmouth sucker, mountain sucker, bluehead sucker, mottled sculpin and the paiute sculpin.