The research done by UNLV professors concerning the endangered Devil's Hole pupfish will be featured as part of a Discovery Channel story Oct. 27.

The story, which features interviews with James Deacon, who heads UNLV's environmental studies program, and Stan Hillyard, professor of biological sciences, will air at 8 p.m. as one of three segments on the Discovery Channel's "World of Wonder" program. The Discovery Channel is aired to Prime Cable customers on channel 25.

The story will touch on the role of UNLV professors both in saving the pupfish from probable extinction in the 1970s and in monitoring the tiny fish's well-being today.

The Devil's Hole pupfish, which is tens of thousands of years old, exists only in Devil's Hole, a natural water tank that has only a small surface area, but is extremely deep. Devil's Hole is located in the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, west of Pahrump.

When proposed development in the Ash Meadows area threatened to wipe out the Devil's Hole Pupfish, Deacon went to bat for the tiny creature in a fight that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. As a result, the proposed development was halted and the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge was created.

Today, Hillyard is part of a team of divers that twice a year dives into the Devil's Hole, where the water is crystal clear and the water temperature hovers around 92 degrees, to do a census of the fish. Some of the fish can be counted from the surface, but to find others the divers must go as deep as 90 feet. The last census in September showed that there currently are more than 500 of the Devil's Hole pupfish, Hillyard said.

Hillyard's team provided the Discovery Channel with underwater video of the census count that will air as part of the program.