LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) — Biologists are bringing a species of mussel back to rivers in southeastern Wyoming.

Stephen Siddons with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department says the pocketbook mussel used to be found in the North Platte and Laramie rivers in Wyoming.

The mussels are common elsewhere in the Mississippi River Basin but hadn't been found in Wyoming since 2008.

Biologists obtained 2,400 mussels from Nebraska, where they're raised in captivity.

In July, they released 1,000 mussels in the North Platte River at the Fort Laramie National Historic Site.

The Laramie Boomerang reports they placed the remainder on a ranch along the Laramie River upstream of Grayrocks Reservoir.

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