In the Mojave Desert and Colorado Desert Biosphere Reserve in the United States, there is a Death Valley. It is called Death Valley because the environment here is so harsh that life is almost impossible to survive.
Due to the low terrain and the shielding of the mountains, water vapor from the Pacific Ocean cannot reach it, and precipitation is minimal. Because of the dryness, the temperature in Death Valley is extremely high, even reaching more than 50 degrees!
In such a bad environment, there is still a "devil's hole" hidden. Why is it called Devil's Cave? Because its environment is really "devil!
Devil's Cave is at least 130m deep and has been formed for 50 years. Because of its depth and lack of plants, the water in Devil's Cave is extremely hypoxic, and the temperature is also very high, maintaining at 33.3~ 33.9℃—— This is already the upper limit of the temperature that most fish can tolerate.
This place has always been regarded as a forbidden place for life, but in 1930, the US government discovered the magic killifish here for the first time-a species of only 100 meters long. The small fish, which is about 2.5cm~2.7cm, is the smallest vertebrate in the world and was included in the first list of species under the U.S. Endangered Species Protection Act in 1966.
The devil killifish has lived in Devil's Cave since the Ice Age. , it has lived on the earth for 60,000 years. It has survived for such a long time in an environment with such high temperatures and insufficient oxygen, and the devil killifish is called an "evolutionary miracle" by biologists. Nowadays, due to climate change, the global temperature has generally increased, and the living environment of the devil killifish has become increasingly harsh. The number has dropped sharply to 38, and it is on the verge of extinction.
In order to protect this evolutionary miracle from ancient times, Death Valley Park in the United States. And other units in the United States are trying to find ways to take effective protection measures.
Experts have tried to build a "refuge" for the devil's killifish not far from the Devil's Cave, hoping to provide protection for the devil's killifish under artificial intervention. The fish provides a more stable living environment.
However, in practice, it has been found that because the devil fish has been isolated from the world and has less contact with external environmental factors, it is often difficult for the devil fish to adapt when moved to a new environment. In 1967, an agricultural company leased a large area of land for agricultural reclamation. During the period, a large amount of groundwater was extracted for farmland irrigation. This caused the water level in the Devil's Cave to drop, and the rocky bed where the devil fish spawned was also exposed. This was undoubtedly a big factor in the survival of the devil fish, which was already on the verge of extinction. Crisis.
In response to this, The U.S. Supreme Court officially confirmed in 1976 that it is prohibited to use groundwater in the habitat of the devil killifish to irrigate crops and strengthen the protection of the devil killifish.
In addition, in order to prevent the devil killifish from becoming extinct, the US government established a protected area where the devil killifish lives, and erected a 2.4-meter-high barbed wire fence around the pool.
However, this approach does not seem to have brought much change to the situation of the devil killifish, and the devil killifish is still experiencing more and more crises caused by humans and nature.
In 2016, an event almost led to the extinction of the devil killifish - something incredible happened!
On April 30, 2016, three young people drank a lot of wine and were already in a drunken state. They were driving a car on the road in the desert.
Arriving at Death Valley Park, the three people who were not very conscious got out of the car. The park gate was locked. One of them took out the pistol he carried, opened the park lock with a bullet, and broke into the Devil's Cave against the rules. Due to the hot weather and the numbness of alcohol, they only controlled themselves by instinct, completely ignoring the "No Swimming" sign erected in the Devil's Cave.
They took off their clothes, jumped into the pool, and started playing happily. One of the young men had an upset stomach due to the effects of alcohol, so he vomited on the shore. After having fun for a while, they drove away, leaving behind a few smelly clothes, a puddle of vomit, the messed up pool water and the confused Killifish.
What they don’t know is that this Devil’s Cave is home to the few remaining Devil Killifish on the planet, and the time they entered the pool to cause trouble was during the breeding season. Their impact on the reproduction of Devil Killifish is immeasurable. .
Afterwards, security personnel at Death Valley Park were surprised to find that the gate had been breached. Then the surveillance was urgently called, and what the three people had done was discovered from the surveillance, and a reward was immediately issued.
The reward amount was increased from US$5,000 to US$10,000. Finally, on the tenth day, the three drunken perpetrators were arrested and brought to justice.
They were prosecuted for violating the Endangered Animals Act and were eventually fined $50,000 and imprisoned for one year for destroying endangered animal habitats and damaging property.
The devil killifish is listed as a critically endangered protected animal, and some experts predict: The devil killifish will face a 28% to 32% risk of extinction in the next 20 years.
Seeing this, some readers may want to ask: How valuable is a small and inconspicuous fish? Why spend so much time, energy, manpower and financial resources to protect it? Even getting a huge fine and a year in jail for three drunkards because of a school of small fish?
In fact, protecting endangered animals is not only out of humanity and kindness, but the ultimate goal is to save humans themselves. Every animal, regardless of size or number, is a member of the natural ecosystem. It is with such a variety of animals that we can maintain the diversity and stability of the ecosystem, so that every link of the ecosystem can have checks and balances.
Although we often think of ourselves as humans as different from other species, we are more noble. But in the final analysis, humans are also advanced animals and members of a huge ecosystem. If the ecological circle collapses, humans will not be able to survive alone.
And history is full of examples of ecological system imbalance due to human destruction of nature.
In 1859, a farmer brought 25 hares from England to Australia. Since there were no natural enemies, the rabbits became overrun;
In the 1950s, our country launched the "Four Pests" campaign and killed a large number of sparrows, causing local Pests have lost their natural enemies and natural inhibitory factors, resulting in serious pest infestations;
Some of our country's folk traditions of illegally eating wild game have caused countless natural epidemics and species extinction;
There is no shortage of painful lessons in history, but only people's "scars" Awe, perspective change and action protection after recovery.
What needs to be said here is that protecting the devil killifish is actually as important as protecting polar bears. Just because they are small and less visible to humans does not mean they are less important.
Finally, I would like to encourage you with the words of Basinger, professor of environmental science at Burley University: "These brave little fish live in a harsh desert environment. Although they have experienced drastic temperature rises and falls for several thousand years, they still survived strongly. . Now, as carbon dioxide emissions continue to increase, and the climate warms, humans may also need others to rescue us from the hole. "
Reference:
[1] Hou Meiling. Life in Death Valley/Cruelty. Tenacious[J]. Chinese and foreign management , 2018(4):1.
[2]Red Queen. Saving the devil medaka in the devil's cave[J]. Friends of Science, 2014(11):2.
Author ：Gudong Cunxin Preliminary review: Ding Haier Proofreading Editor: W
