Kendall Warm Springs Dace
Kendall Warm Springs Dace survives in one exceptionally small natural range. Its importance lies less in showy appearance than in adaptation to stable warm water and the extreme vulnerability created by having every wild individual in one system.
Artwork inspired by Carl Rungius
Every wild Kendall Warm Springs Dace lives in one warm spring and roughly 984 feet of outflow on the Bridger-Teton National Forest. The spring emerges at about 85°F year-round, creating a thermal island beside the much colder Green River and making this tiny fish one of Wyoming’s most geographically concentrated vertebrates.
Adults measure only about 0.9 to 2.1 inches and generally hold in or beside the main current, while fry use shallow vegetated margins. The dace’s importance is not showy color but extreme adaptation: Flow alteration, disease, contamination, or one introduced fish could affect the entire natural population because there is no second wild watershed to absorb the loss.
- Range
- Single spring outflow
- Federal status
- Endangered
- Adaptation
- Constant warm water
Quick guide
- Identify by
- Look for its whole natural range is one spring system.
- Confirm with
- Stay outside water and protected habitat.
Recognize responsibly
- Understand scale
- Its whole natural range is one spring system.
- View remotely
- Stay outside water and protected habitat.
- Prevent invasion
- Never release fish, bait, plants, or water.
- Leave ID to experts
- Do not net or handle tiny minnows.
Good to know
This is a conservation site, not a collecting or snorkeling destination. Obey every closure and barrier, keep equipment out of the water, and do not publish sensitive access details.
Notice these
- A tiny, slender minnow in a warm spring channel; field identification should be left to specialists
- one short, thermally stable spring outflow in the upper Green River drainage
- Swims and feeds throughout the year because spring temperature remains comparatively constant.