The Missouri Department of Conservation has released about 9,500 endangered fish in northeast Missouri.

The department this week announced the farm-raised Topeka shiners now are swimming in ponds and streams at the Union Ridge Conservation Area.

Resource scientist Doug Novinger says the department restocked streams with the shiners in an effort to preserve Missouri's natural wildlife.

Biologists don't know why the shriner population is declining, but the department says development and agriculture changed their environment.

Two experimental batches of the minnow released last year in northwest Missouri survived the winter.

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