You've probably seen some large families—families with six, seven, or even a dozen kids! It's hard for most of us to imagine how difficult it would be to raise so many children. But can you imagine having hundreds—or even thousands of children? How on earth could anyone care for so many? The answer is, that if you have enough children, you don't have to take care of them!
Take, for example, the Chihuahua Chub, a local fish. Although their
numbers are dwindling now, there is evidence from Mimbres pottery suggesting they once
were an important food source. But most people don't realize that these fish can
literally have thousands of young! Once they have laid the eggs, the offspring are on
their own. Most of them don't survive—they're usually eaten by larger
fish or other predators. But this is why the parents lay so many eggs. By having many,
many young, the parents do their best to ensure the survival of their species.
Listen to the Audio (mp3 format) as recorded by KTEP, Public Radio for the Southwest.
Contributor: Kodi R. Jeffery, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Page, L.M., and B.M. Burr. 1991. A field guide to freshwater fishes of North America north of Mexico. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 432 pp. (P. 567)