COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- One of Colorado Springs most popular trails has turned into a safe haven for the almost extinct greenback cutthroat.
The last of the fish found here in the four-mile reach just outside Bear Creek.
"We've had a few surprises but nothing quite to this level," Doug Kieger, Senior Aquatic Biologist with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife said.
A new study by the University of Colorado at Boulder found a new species.
Historically biologists thought we had four native cutthroats to Colorado but we now know we have six lineage's and the last population of greenback cutthroat left in the wild.
Discoveries that meant digging through the history books.
"When we were looking at specimens that had been put in jars from early explorers a 130-150 years ago. Those fish were used to see how they compare to the population that we now have," Krieger said.
A rare find of this magnitude has biologists from the local, state, and federal level working to keep this drainage and habitat in the best shape.
A pristine habitat means no fishing and a bridge to prevent sediment from destroying some of our region's last living remnants of the 19th century.
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