The following descriptions and pictures are intended to help separate the various darters of the Little River drainage. This is not a listing of all darters in the watershed but those found with the leopard darter, a Threatened species. The US Fish and Wildlife Service, Ouachita National Forest, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Cossatot State Park and Natural Area have been conducting snorkeling surveys for the leopard darter since 1992 to monitor the status of the species. Rivers sampled annually include the Little River headwaters, Glover, and Mountain Fork Rivers in Oklahoma, and the Mountain Fork, Robinson Fork of the Rolling Fork and the Cossatot Rivers in Arkansas.
Leopard darters have very round spots on their sides with very crisp margins.
If the spots look like they have been printed with a laser printer, it is a leopard darter. Behaviors of these darters may lend themselves to sort out leopards from channels. Leopards appear to be curious and will actually come looking for you. They will swim away but generally slowly and then will turn back and look. They generally tend to stay up off the bottom a few inches.