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Illinois researcher takes swamp dives to study rare bantam sunfish

Koaw Zaczek searching for the fish in southern Illinois. (Photos provided)

Few Illinois anglers have ever seen a bantam sunfish, and for good reason: The tiny fish has vanished from most of the state where it once lived and is mostly known from only two localities in Union County.
That makes every population important – and every new discovery potentially significant. Koaw Zaczek, a Southern Illinois University Carbondale Ph.D. student and research assistant, is wading into the shallow, vegetation-choked wetlands of southern Illinois to find out where bantam sunfish survive and what they need to reproduce.

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