Day two started off badly. First, we discovered that temperatures around 25°F with no heater made for a very cold night. Also, with no heat, the moist breaths of two humans and four dogs condensed on the canvas roof of the camper causing a steady rain of cold water. Cara had taken the back bed. I had the front. The dogs alternated sleeping on our beds and the dining table, which substituted as another sleeping surface, and the couch. Poor Gus with his short coat froze, shivering all night at my feet. I tried to keep him covered, but he shifted too much to keep the covers on. All in all it was a miserable night. We planned to stop to buy a heater.
Then, it seems maybe we should have practiced breaking down the popup. It only took us an hour and a half to prepare the popup to be towed out of the RV park. Despite our dawn start, we were late. Our next destination was going to be San Solomon Spring in Balmorhea State Park at Toyah, Texas. But, considering our options, I decided instead to travel late to Artesia, New Mexico where Cara had located via her trusty IPhone an RV park with a rare empty space. Like west Texas, southern New Mexico was in the midst of an oil boom and oil field workers occupied most spaces. With that piece of information we headed for Artesia with an intermediate stop at Wilkinson Spring and Clear Creek, the homes of Gambusia heterochir, the Clear Creek Gambusia , another endangered and rare Gambusia. I’ll discuss this species in a separate blog.
Wilkinson Spring is on private property near Menard, Texas and, due to my lack of planning, we hadn’t contacted the owner for access. This was obviously Susie’s fault. In any event, we could get only about a quarter mile from the spring, but were able to access Clear Creek along the highway. We saw small Gambusia-like fish in the flowing water, but since they are endangered, we didn’t try to net any out. The photo above is Clear Creek.
From Clear Creek we drove west to Artesia, stopping to eat, exercise the dogs, and buy an electric heater. We arrived late and after dark at the RV park. We were getting better at setup and accomplished that without issue. There was snow on the ground and they air was crisply cold. The three shepherds enjoyed it. Gus much preferred the warmth of the camper.
The next blog will be: “Gambusia Road Trip – Day 3.”
Scott says
Charles,
With so many of these rare Gambusia confined to a single spring or smallish body of water, but knowing of their productivity and adaptability in captivity, does the US Gov give special permits for their collection/rearing? It just seems like so many of these fish are just one train derailment or G. affinis invasion from being extinct. A tragedy that could be avoided if they were dispersed throughout the hobby.
Scott
Scott
charles says
Scott,
Several of us at the American Livebearer Association (ALA) attempted a year or so ago to get permits to do exactly what you suggest. The request was denied. The reason given is that under the Endangered Species Act endangered and threatened species can only be kept in captivity for eventual release back into the wild. They felt that wouldn’t be the purpose of hobbyist kept fish.
It is frightening that so many species are found in such restricted environments with no backup. I will be blogging in the next Gambusia Road Trip installment about one endangered Gambusia species being maintained in captivity.
Charles
Scott says
The funny thing about this is that IF the Gov were to allow some of these amazingly skilled hobbyists a crack at raising some of these endangered live bearer species, it would only be a few years before they’d have everyone BEGGING for the Gov to take a percentage of their exploding colonies off their hands. Not only would the US Gov have back-ups in-case of environmental catastrophe, they’d get potential stock for release that didn’t cost a DIME of grant money…
charles says
Scott,
That is true, but I think one of the real reasons they don’t want to do this is that they fear the lack of control over breeding. Many of the endangered species have common relatives with which they can easily hybridize. In fact, that is the primary threat to many of the rare Gambusia, hybridization with G. affinis. Another fear is the commercialization of the endangered fish, something specifically banned by the ESA. There are ways around both issues, including certification of specific hobbyist and DNA testing. I think they just don’t want the headache of dealing with others.
Charles