The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has found that a petition to remove the threatened Squirrel Chimney Cave shrimp from the Federal list of endangered and threatened species has not presented convincing evidence to support its claim. The petition from the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission requested that the Service consider removing federal designation for the species because the cave shrimp may already be extinct. The Squirrel Chimney Cave shrimp was first discovered in 1953.
Adults are transparent, a little over an inch in length, and lack body and eye pigmentation.
The species is named for its historic and only known habitat, a subterranean aquatic site located in western Alachua County near Gainesville, Florida known as Squirrel Chimney. The Service placed the crustacean on the Endangered Species List in 1990. In its petition, the Commission cited a status survey that failed to detect the species at Squirrel Chimney Cave or four similar sites in the area. The Commission claims the species' absence at Squirrel Chimney may be the result of a recent colonization of the site by a potential fish predator, the redeye chub. Although biologists have not seen the species in more than 20 years, the petition did not present convincing scientific or commercial information indicating that the Squirrel Chimney Cave shrimp is extinct, Hamilton said, noting that the latest survey covered only four of 34 potentially suitable sites within western Alachua County.