May 2023 - 32

Stephen Siddons, Wyoming Game and Fish Department fisheries biologist, transfers plain pocketbook mussels into buckets as part of a native mussel reintroduction in the North Platte River.
(Photo by Chris Martin/WGFD)
B
uried among gray and brown rocks,
green algae and mottled gravel may
be, depending on where you look,
a freshwater mussel looking for a fish to
rear its larvae.
It's not really looking - mussels don't have
eyes - but it knows what it wants. The mussel
will wave a fleshy part above its shell back and
forth with the rhythms of the water. You'd be
forgiven if, while snorkeling in a river, you
briefly mistake that fleshy bit for a minnow.
The mussel hopes a fish will, too. It's only by
luring fish to their shells that many species of
freshwater mussels can reproduce.
Most likely you didn't notice the mussel or
its fleshy lure. Wyoming's freshwater mussels
evolved to be hard to find, camouflaged on
the bottoms of mucky rivers away from the
raccoons, skunks and muskrats that crack
their shells and eat their insides. It's more
likely you've found mussel shells on the banks
32 | May 2023
of your favorite stream while fishing, birding
or hiking.
But sometimes the hardest creatures to
find, even the ones covered in slime on the
bottoms of rivers are worth taking the time
to understand.
Wyoming's seven native mussel species
work as the state's aquatic filters. They're the
canaries in the coal mine of freshwater systems
and they're the good to the invasive zebra and
quagga mussels' bad.
They're also struggling.
" We have about 300 species of native mussels
in North America, and 70 percent of
those are imperiled to some degree, " said Stephen
Siddons, fisheries biologist and native
mussel expert with the Wyoming Game and
Fish Department.
Researchers like Siddons and Lusha Tronstad,
lead invertebrate zoologist with the Wyoming
Natural Diversity Database, know the
many perils facing the state's water cleansers.
They're looking for ways to reverse the decline
and perhaps bring some back, even if it means
more time spent face down in rivers poking
around in the mud.

May 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2023

May 2023 - 1
May 2023 - 2
May 2023 - 3
May 2023 - 4
May 2023 - 5
May 2023 - 6
May 2023 - 7
May 2023 - 8
May 2023 - 9
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May 2023 - 11
May 2023 - 12
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May 2023 - 14
May 2023 - 15
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May 2023 - 18
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May 2023 - 26
May 2023 - 27
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May 2023 - 29
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May 2023 - 31
May 2023 - 32
May 2023 - 33
May 2023 - 34
May 2023 - 35
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May 2023 - 40
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May 2023 - 42
May 2023 - 43
May 2023 - 44
May 2023 - 45
May 2023 - 46
May 2023 - 47
May 2023 - 48
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/october-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/september-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/august-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/july-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/june-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/wyoming-wildlife-may-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/april-2024-e-edition
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/march-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/february-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/january-2024
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/december-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/october-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/september-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/august-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/july-2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/june-2023
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https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/april-2023
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https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/december-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/october-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/september-2022
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https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/july-2022
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https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/may-iak-special-issue
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https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/march-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/february-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/january-2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/dec-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/october-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/september-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/august-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/july-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/june-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/may-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/april-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/march-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/february-2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/January2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/December2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/wyominggame/WyomingWildlife/September2020
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