Devil's Hole Pupfish on the brink of extinction

Excessive ground water pumping, mating behavioral changes, and habitat disturbances caused by researchers trying to save the rare pupfish are being blamed for its decimation. In a snafu that was not publicly announced, two years ago scientists accidentally killed 80 of the fish, or about 1/3 of the remaining population. If the pupfish don't breed this year, they could disappear in the next year and a half.

Other threats to this unique habitat - the Devil's Hole in Death Valley- include fences that have stopped the flow of gravel onto the slab of rock on which the fish spawn and possibly a bridge that has been erected to keep people off the rock slab.

This is a good lesson in one of the principles of science: You cannot measure something without affecting it. Scientists are therefore always looking for ways to reduce the impacts of their instruments on what they are measuring.