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Spotlighting Three Of Kentucky’s Endangered Species

When Kentucky was officially admitted as the 15th state of the Union in 1792, it was the first in the United States to be located west of the Appalachian Mountains. The Bluegrass State is named after Poa pratensis, also called Kentucky bluegrass, a long-stemmed plant covering thousands of square miles in the state’s heart that sprouts little blue flowers if left untrimmed or uncut. Kentucky’s state borders on all sides except the south and southeast are formed by rivers, and within these boundaries lies a multitude of diverse biomes ranging from rocky peaks to coastal plains and sprawling valleys. 

These lands (and waters) are filled with wildlife, which the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources is tasked with managing, conserving, and protecting. Responsibility for threatened and endangered species within the state falls to the department’s Wildlife Diversity Program. 

Any species in Kentucky listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 also receives federal support from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). There are currently 52 species listed as threatened or endangered under the ESA living in Kentucky, according to the USFWS

Read on to learn more about three of Kentucky’s endangered species and what’s being done to save them from extinction. 

Kentucky Cave Shrimp

Photo Courtesy Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution

The Kentucky cave shrimp (Palaemonias ganteri) is a federally endangered freshwater crustacean endemic to Mammoth Cave National Park in central Kentucky. These fascinating creatures have fully adapted to life in the dark caves. The absence of any light means they have no eyes and instead rely on two pairs of antennules for taste, touch, and smell. The cave shrimp are transparent, as they have no pigment in their shells, grow to approximately 1.25 inches in length, and can live as long as 15 years! 

The first description of the species can be traced back to August 1901 when a scientist named Hay collected 12 individual Kentucky cave shrimp from the Roaring River region of Mammoth Cave. The species was named after a cave manager named Mr. H. C. Ganter, according to Hay, whose original collection of shrimp specimens is now stored in the National Museum of Natural History. 

A declining population of the transparent crustaceans largely attributed to a nearby dam saw them listed as an endangered species under the ESA in 1983. The ruling also added another safeguard by designating the Roaring River passage of the Mammoth Cave as a critical habitat for the shrimp. 

Dams like Lock and Dam No. 6 on the Green River in Kentucky can cause a decline in water quality or even completely disrupt entire portions of cave systems, both of which negatively impact cave shrimp. In 2016, Lock and Dam No. 6 was washed out and then entirely removed. Combined with more environmentally friendly regulations around water quality runoff and pollution in the region, it’s no surprise scientists are seeing signs that the species’ population has slowly but surely been increasing over time. 

Cumberland Darter

Photo Courtesy USFWS

The Cumberland darter (Etheostoma susanae) is a narrowly endemic fish species that is known to occur in small, fragmented populations along the Cumberland River system of Kentucky and Tennessee. The tiny freshwater fish was listed as federally endangered in 2011, and a year later, it received a critical habitat designation, accounting for roughly 54 river miles in McCreary and Whitley Counties, Kentucky, and Campbell and Scott Counties, Tennessee. The species is mostly found in shallow runs or pools in the lower gradient sections of streams. 

The biggest threats to the Cumberland darter are all related to habitat alteration or destruction mostly caused by human activities like coal mining, logging, agriculture, urban development, and road construction. The 2019 recovery plan for the species cautioned that the long-term survival of the fish would be difficult to achieve given its spread out and already minuscule existing population. 

The primary recommendation was to maintain populations of fish throughout its historical range by increasing the protection against water quality degradation and habitat alteration. It further suggested that more research was required to study the species, and, in the meantime, agencies and organizations should begin developing captive propagation (or breeding) programs. 

Palezone Shiner

Photo Courtesy USFWS

The palezone shiner (Notropis albizonatus) is a small fish reaching a maximum of 60 millimeters in length that was first listed as an endangered species in 1993. Once covering large swaths of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, the species currently exists in only two distinct and separate populations — one in the Little South Fork of the Cumberland River and the other in the Paint Rock River. The slender minnow owes its name to the pale-colored superolateral stripe, or “pale zone,” running across the length of its body. The palezone shiner is found in the pools and upland streams of small rivers and large creeks that flow permanently with clean, clear water. 

Although the species was known to exist for several decades before being listed as endangered under the ESA, little was known about the palezone shiner when the species’ recovery plan was published in 1997. However, the amended recovery plan that was published some 22 years later was able to fill in those gaps of understanding. The amendment was not due to additional knowledge but rather because the original recovery plan only included criteria for downlisting the shiner from endangered to threatened and not criteria for removing the species from the list entirely. 

The most recent study on the species suggests that the two existing populations have continued to persist, with some showing signs of reproduction and recruitment. The most significant step (or swim?) forward for the palezone shiner will be to create two additional populations outside the existing ones in Alabama and Kentucky.

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