State wildlife officials are concerned that an endangered fish may be extinct now that a wildfire burning in the southern Colorado mountains has reached a creek home to the thriving habitat of cutthroat trout.
The Gazette reports Greg Policky with Colorado Parks and Wildlife says the fish in a 3-mile stretch of Hayden Creek are "one of a kind." He says they're related to greenbacks but have DNA not known to be in any other fish.
Policky estimated the population of trout to be about 2,000. He says there's been ongoing efforts to sustain the fish, which are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Officials say the Hayden Pass fire in the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness has spread across 13,000 acres. More than 100 homes have been evacuated.
