Fish Surveys of the Streams and Rivers in South Central South Dakota West of the Missouri River

Cunningham, George; Olson, Ricky; Hickey, Susanne

A survey of headwater streams and rivers west of the Missouri River in South Dakota was conducted in the summer and fall of 1994. Forty-six sites were surveyed on thirty-five streams and four rivers lo document the presence and distribution of native fish species. Thirty-four species were collected, ·eight of which arc stale listed. Data relevant to fish distributions in the West River area arc rare since few, if any, systematic surveys have been conducted since Bailey and Alum ( 1962) surveyed South Dakota in the 1950's. In more recent times, streams surveys in West River have been confined to the Black Hills region (Erickson et al., 1993). Our survey work was undertaken to determine the distribution of native stream fishes in the West River counties outside the Olack Hills region. This paper presents our findings and includes a description of the sampling sites. New stream records or range extensions in this area were determined for the following species: Notropis heterolepis (black nose shiner), Luxiluscomutus (common shiner), Murgariscus margarita (pearl dace), Phoxinus neogaeus (finescale dace), P. eos (northern redbclly dace) and Rhinichthys atratulus (blacknosc dace). Our collections at the Cheyenne, White, and Little White rivers confirmed the presence of Macrhybopsis gelida (stmgeon chub, a proposed candidate for federal listing as an endangered species) at two new location plus two documented sites from the early 1950's. In addition, new locations were documented for Cyprinella lutrensis (red shiner) and Carpiodes cyprinus (quillback) in the Kcya Paha,. Cheyenne, and White rivers.

Fish Surveys of the Streams and Rivers in South Central South Dakota West of the Missouri River

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