Arizona

Arizona’s Biosphere 2 is now home to endangered Sonoyta pupfish

Published

3 weeks ago

October 30, 2025

Press Room

Arizona’s Biosphere 2 is now home to endangered Sonoyta pupfish

The rare Sonoyta pupfish were introduced into a desert river habitat inside the huge Biosphere 2 structure near Tucson.
The dish are native to Quitobaquito Springs near the Arizona-Mexico border, but their numbers have dwindled with water levels in the habitat.
Biosphere 2 was built as a sealed habitat for humans, but the first two “missions” failed and it has evolved into a laboratory owned by the University of Arizona.

ORACLE, AZ — Four dozen Sonoyta pupfish are now swimming beneath the towering glass pyramids of the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 after a multi-year effort to conserve the critically endangered species.

The rare desert fish were introduced into a newly constructed desert stream habitat at the research facility on Oct. 24, welcomed by a cheering crowd of university students, biologists and self-proclaimed fish lovers.

“Biosphere 2 is a theater of all possibilities,” said Joaquin Ruiz, director of the facility. “In addition to what we do to try to understand how ecosystems operate, we’re also going to be the safe harbor of a species that is endangered.”

The release is a collaboration between the University of Arizona, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

Measuring about two inches long, the small blue-green and brown-striped fish are also called Quitobaquito pupfish because they can only be found in the wild at Quitobaquito Springs, a small, spring-fed oasis in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument near the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Whenever I talk about pupfish in my class, I know they’re really easy to identify. They’re very cute. They’re called pupfish because they look like little puppy dogs,” said University of Arizona associate professor Peter Reinthal, who originated the idea for the pupfish introduction.

A new use for a storied structure

After teaching a hands-on portion of his class on ichthyology (the study of fish) inside Biosphere 2, Reinthal wrote a grant through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Desert Fish Habitat Partnership to fund the construction of the stream inside a giant habitat once intended for humans.

Biosphere 2 — named after the planet Earth, the original biosphere — was built in the late 1980s by Space Biospheres Ventures, a private company with a goal of creating an entirely self-sustaining Earth ecosystem beneath the glass walls. In the 1990s, the facility gained national attention when researchers were locked inside Biosphere 2 for two years to simulate a futuristic space colony. The first two “missions” failed and the structure evolved into a science laboratory.

The University of Arizona gained ownership of the property in 2011 and now operates the facility as an Earth Systems Research Center and tourist destination.

State and federal agencies collaborated with the university and drafted a Safe Harbor Agreement, a voluntary agreement that allows individuals and organizations to keep populations of endangered species and contribute to their recovery.

The introduced pupfish are a part of a backup population meant to safeguard the species from extinction if the wild population declines.

The entire project took about two years of planning and implementation.

“I’ve been a scientist all my life and every project I ever do it’s to collect data or produce papers. This is the first one we did where we actually built something physical,” said Reinthal. “I really, really enjoyed that.”

Habitat loss drives population declines in hardy desert fish

Behind their “cute” faces and chubby bodies, the Sonoyta pupfish are survivors.

Adapted to live in extreme environments, the pupfish are capable of surviving drastic temperature changes, a range of pH levels and low-oxygen water.

“They can survive in 110-degree water, which is wild. And they can handle a lot of salinity,” said Brett Montgomery, topminnow and pupfish specialist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. “They can exist in springs and streams with all those things that you wouldn’t think would allow fish to survive.”

Despite their hardy nature, the primary threat to the pupfish species has been habitat loss.

The Sonoyta pupfish were listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1986, and today, their total population is about 2,000.

The species was once found south of the border in the Rio Sonoyta, but since groundwater pumping has depleted the river, there has been no observable population in the watershed.

“A good number of animal species rely on streams like this in the natural world, and they’re valuable places to a large diversity of species, both plants and animals. We need to take care of them,” said Jason Deleeuw, terrestrial biome manager at Biosphere 2.

Habitat is also an educational tool

Deleeuw constructed the desert stream with a local construction company and help from student workers. The stream features several pools to hold the endangered fish and includes native vegetation to emulate their disappearing natural environment.

About 34,000 fish species are expected to go extinct in the next 25-50 years, according to Reinthal. A recent study co-authored by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature found that 26% of all freshwater fish species were at high risk of extinction.

Reinthal hopes the population of endangered fish will serve as an educational resource for both university classes and for those visiting Biosphere 2 as a tourist destination.

“It’s a great outreach tool,” said Reinthal. “Biosphere 2 gets about 80,000 visitors a year here, so the public can learn about fish.”

As pupfish settled into their new home right away, establishing territory and chasing each other in circles, the biologists are already planning for future introductions.

Montgomery said he hopes to introduce additional Sonoyta pupfish once the government shutdown ends, and after the pupfish are acclimated, the team plans to introduce the endangered Gila topminnow to the Biosphere 2’s desert stream habitat.

“They make people happy,” said Reinthal. “And I tell my class, if you don’t like pupfish, it means you’re a mean person.”

John Leos covers environmental issues for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Send tips or questions to john.leos@arizonarepublic.com.

Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.

Follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook and Instagram.

Source link

Click to comment

Arizona

Freed sex offender allegedly poses as doctor, sexually assaults student at Arizona elementary school: police

Published

10 hours ago

November 22, 2025

Press Room

Freed sex offender allegedly poses as doctor, sexually assaults student at Arizona elementary school: police

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Friday – A convicted sex offender freed from prison two weeks ago allegedly posed as a doctor and sexually assaulted a student inside an Arizona elementary school, sparking outrage and calls for answers from parents, according to reports.

Abel Kai Gblah, 25, is accused of sexual assault and kidnapping after he accessed school grounds and posed as a doctor to lure a student into a classroom and assaulted her at Orangewood Elementary School on Nov. 19, according to the Phoenix Police Department (PPD).

PPD officials said in a statement to Fox News Digital that officers were called to the school after administrators reported that an incident had occurred on campus.

“When officers arrived, they learned an unauthorized man had made it onto school grounds and lured a grade-school-aged girl into a classroom where he sexually assaulted her,” police said. “At some point, the student was able to push the man away. He then ran from the scene before officers arrived.”

NEWLY RELEASED VIDEO SHOWS COPS CUFFING TEEN LINKED TO VIOLENT SEX ASSAULT SCANDAL THAT HAS FAMILIES FUMING

Abel Kai Gblah was accused of sexually assaulting and kidnapping a student at a Phoenix elementary school on Nov. 19. (National Sex Offender Registry)

FOX 10 Phoenix reported that court documents show Gblah allegedly drew the attention of a student by impersonating a doctor and expressing that he had to examine her.

After fleeing the school, police located Gblah, who was booked into jail on multiple charges.

Gblah was released from prison two weeks ago on similar charges, according to the outlet, and was also allegedly involved in human smuggling across the U.S. border.

According to FOX 10, a prosecutor at Gblah’s court appearance said he was convicted twice in 2021 for sexual conduct with a minor and a registered sex offender.

FURY ERUPTS AFTER ACCUSED TEEN SEX PREDATOR DODGES PRISON; FAMILIES SWARM COURTHOUSE DEMANDING JUDGE’S HEAD

Abel Kai Gblah was arrested this week after allegedly sexually assaulting a student at a Phoenix elementary school. (iStock)

The news station reported that the Washington Elementary School District said in a statement that school administration immediately called 911 and placed the school on lockdown for over an hour.

“He was on campus for approximately 10 minutes and during that time, he made inappropriate contact with a student,” the district wrote.

The district shared a separate statement with Fox News Digital that it released to parents on Friday, which revealed the results of its internal investigation, including that Gblah was a former student of the school who attended from 2012 to 2015.

Abel Kai Gblah allegedly assaulted a student at Orangewood Elementary School in Phoenix on Nov. 19. (Google Maps)

While initial reports indicated that the Gblah gained access to the campus behind a student who had buzzed in, further investigation revealed that he entered through an unlocked lobby door, and walked in with a tardy student, the district stated.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Following the investigation, a staff member has been placed on administrative leave, the district added.

“We understand how alarming this situation has been and want you to know that we are reviewing every aspect of our safety procedures and communication to ensure that an event like this does not happen again, wrote Orangewood Elementary Principal Emily Paterson.

According to FOX 10, Gblah is being held on a cash-only bond of $500,000, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for Dec. 1.

Source link

Arizona

Predicting the final score of Baylor vs. Arizona

Published

1 day ago

November 21, 2025

Press Room

Predicting the final score of Baylor vs. Arizona

Baylor RB Bryson Washington — Chris Jones-Imagn Images

Source link

Arizona

Trump says message from Arizona senator, others ‘seditious behavior’ punishable by death

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2025

Press Room

Trump says message from Arizona senator, others ‘seditious behavior’ punishable by death

PHOENIX (AP/AZFamily) ― President Donald Trump on Thursday accused several Democratic lawmakers, including an Arizona Senator, of sedition “punishable by DEATH” after the lawmakers called on U.S. military members to uphold the Constitution and defy “illegal orders.”

The 90-second video was first posted early Tuesday from Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s X account. In it, the six lawmakers — Slotkin, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, and Reps. Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan — speak directly to U.S. service members, whom Slotkin acknowledges are “under enormous stress and pressure right now.”

“The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution,” Slotkin wrote in the X post.

All of the lawmakers in the video are veterans of the armed services and intelligence community. Sen. Kelly was a U.S. Navy captain.

We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community.
The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.
Don’t give up the ship. pic.twitter.com/N8lW0EpQ7r
— Sen. Elissa Slotkin (@SenatorSlotkin) November 18, 2025

Trump on Thursday reposted messages from others about the video, amplifying it with his own words. It marked another flashpoint in the political rhetoric that at times has been thematic in his administrations, as well as among some in his MAGA base. Some Democrats accused him of acting like a king and trying to distract from other news, including the soon-to-be-released files about disgraced financier and sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein.

What Democrats said in the video

With pieces of dialogue spliced together from different members, the lawmakers introduce themselves and their background. They go on to say the Trump administration “is pitting our uniformed military against American citizens. They call for service members to “refuse illegal orders” and “stand up for our laws.”

The lawmakers conclude the video by encouraging service members, “Don’t give up the ship,” a War of 1812-era phrase attributed to a U.S. Navy captain’s dying command to his crew.

Although the lawmakers didn’t mention specific circumstances in the video, its release comes as the Trump administration continues attempts at deployment of National Guard troops into U.S. cities for various roles, although some have been pulled back, and others held up in court.

Are U.S. troops allowed to disobey orders?

Troops, especially uniformed commanders, have a specific obligation to reject an order that’s unlawful, if they make that determination.

However, while commanders have military lawyers on their staffs to consult with in helping make such a determination, rank-and-file troops who are tasked with carrying out those orders are rarely in a similar position.

Broad legal precedence holds that just following orders, colloquially known as the “Nuremberg defense” as it was used unsuccessfully by senior Nazi officials to justify their actions under Adolf Hitler, doesn’t absolve troops.

However, the U.S. military legal code, known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice or UCMJ, will punish troops for failing to follow an order should it turn out to be lawful. Troops can be criminally charged with Article 90 of the UCMJ, willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, and Article 92, failure to obey an order.

How Trump, others responded

On Thursday, Trump reposted to social media an article about the video, adding his own commentary that it was “really bad, and Dangerous to our Country.”

“SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!!” Trump went on. “LOCK THEM UP???” He also called for the lawmakers’ arrest and trial, adding in a separate post that it was “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH.”

The Steady State, which describes itself as “a network of 300+ national and homeland security experts standing for strong and principled policy, rule of law, and democracy,” wrote in a Substack post on Thursday that the lawmakers’ call was “only a restatement of what every officer and enlisted servicemember already knows: illegal orders can and should be refused. This is not a political opinion. It is doctrine.”

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell challenged the theory that illegal orders were being issued.

“Our military follows orders, and our civilians give legal orders,” Parnell told The Associated Press on Thursday. “We love the Constitution. These politicians are out of their minds.”

Democrats fire back

The lawmakers involved in the video issued a joint statement on Thursday in response to the president’s comments.

The statement, in part, says the lawmakers will not be intimidated or threatened to deter them from their sworn oath to the U.S.

“What’s most telling is that the President considers it punishable by death for us to restate the law,” the joint statement read. “Our servicemembers should know that we have their backs as they fulfill their oath to the Constitution and obligation to follow only lawful orders. It is not only the right thing to do, but also our duty.

“But this isn’t about any one of us. This isn’t about politics. This is about who we are as Americans. Every American must unite and condemn the President’s calls for our murder and political violence. This is a time for moral clarity.

“In these moments, fear is contagious, but so is courage. We will continue to lead and will not be intimidated.”

Source link