Taxonomy
The scientific name of the westslope cutthroat trout is Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi, as it was first described in the journals of explorer William Clark from specimens obtained during the Lewis and Clark Expedition from the Missouri River near Great Falls, Montana. Cutthroat trout were given the name Salmo clarki in honor of William Clark, who co-led the expedition of 1804–1806. [8] One of Lewis and Clark's missions was to describe the flora and fauna encountered during the expedition. The type specimen of S. clarki was described by naturalist John Richardson in 1836 from a tributary of the lower Columbia River, identified as the "Katpootl", [8] which was perhaps the Lewis River as there was a Multnomah village of similar name at the confluence. This type specimen was most likely the coastal cutthroat subspecies. [9] In 1853, naturalist George Suckley while working for the Pacific Railroad Survey led by Isaac Stevens collected specimens of westslope cutthroat trout by fly fishing below the Great Falls on the Missouri River. In 1856, he described the trout as Salar lewisi to honor explorer Meriwether Lewis. [10] In David Starr Jordan and Barton Warren Evermann's A Check-list of the Fishes and Fishlike Vertebrates of North and Middle America (1896), the name Salmo mykiss lewisi was given to Yellowstone trout or cut-throat trout and included a reference to specimens collected from the Missouri River by George Suckley. [11] In 1898, Jordan and Evermann changed the name of cutthroat trout to Salmo clarki. [12] Salmo clarki lewisi persisted as the subspecies name for both the Yellowstone cutthroat and westslope cutthroat trout until 1971 when fisheries biologist Robert J. Behnke gave the name Salmo clarki bouvieri to the Yellowstone cutthroat with Salmo clarki lewisi reserved for the westslope cutthroat trout. [9]
In 1989, morphological and genetic studies indicated trout of the Pacific basin were genetically closer to Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus species) than to the Salmo s– brown trout (S. trutta) or Atlantic salmon (S. salar) of the Atlantic basin. [13] Thus, in 1989, taxonomic authorities moved the rainbow, cutthroat and other Pacific basin trout into the genus Oncorhynchus. [14]
Trout is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera Oncorhynchus, Salmo and Salvelinus, all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the family Salmonidae. The word trout is also used for some similar-shaped but non-salmonid fish, such as the spotted seatrout/speckled trout.
The rainbow trout is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coastal rainbow trout(O. m. irideus) or Columbia River redband trout (O. m. gairdneri) that usually returns to freshwater to spawn after living two to three years in the ocean. Freshwater forms that have been introduced into the Great Lakes and migrate into tributaries to spawn are also called steelhead.
The cutthroat trout(Oncorhynchus clarkii) is a fish species of the family Salmonidae native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean, Rocky Mountains, and Great Basin in North America. As a member of the genus Oncorhynchus, it is one of the Pacific trout, a group that includes the widely distributed rainbow trout. Cutthroat trout are popular gamefish, especially among anglers who enjoy fly fishing. The common name "cutthroat" refers to the distinctive red coloration on the underside of the lower jaw. The specific name clarkii was given to honor explorer William Clark, coleader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The Bitterroot River is a northward flowing 84-mile (135 km) river running through the Bitterroot Valley, from the confluence of its West and East forks near Conner in southern Ravalli County to its confluence with the Clark Fork River near Missoula in Missoula County, in western Montana. The Clark Fork River is tributary to the Columbia River and ultimately, the Pacific Ocean. The Bitterroot River is a Blue Ribbon trout fishery with a healthy population of native westslope cutthroat trout and bull trout. It is the third most fly fished river in Montana behind the Madison and Big Horn Rivers.
Oncorhynchus is a genus of ray-finned fish in the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae, native to coldwater tributaries of the North Pacific basin. The genus contains twelve extant species, namely six species of Pacific salmon and six species of Pacific trout, all of which are migratory mid-level predatory fish that display natal homing and semelparity.
The yellowfin cutthroat trout is an extinct subspecies or variety of the cutthroat trout, a North American freshwater fish.
The Yellowstone cutthroat trout is a subspecies of the cutthroat trout. It is a freshwater fish in the salmon family. Native only to a few U.S. states, their original range was upstream of Shoshone Falls on the Snake River and tributaries in Wyoming, also across the Continental Divide in Yellowstone Lake and in the Yellowstone River as well as its tributaries downstream to the Tongue River in Montana. The species is also found in Idaho, Utah and Nevada.
Redband trout are a group of three recognized subspecies of rainbow trout. They occur in three distinct regions in Pacific basin tributaries and endorheic basins in the western United States. The three subspecies are the Columbia River redband trout, the McCloud River redband trout and the Great Basin redband trout.
The Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat trout is a form of the cutthroat trout that is considered either as a separate subspecies O. c. behnkei, or as a variety of the Yellowstone cutthroat trout. The fish takes its common name from its original habitat, the Snake River of southern Idaho and western Wyoming, and from its unusual pattern of hundreds of small spots that cover most of its body, differing from the larger-spotted Yellowstone cutthroat pattern. Genetically, it cannot be distinguished from the Yellowstone cutthroat trout, and before the construction of dams, no physical barriers were between the ranges of the two subspecies in the Snake River drainage.
The coastal cutthroat trout, also known as the sea-run cutthroat trout, blue-back trout or harvest trout, is one of the several subspecies of cutthroat trout found in Western North America. The coastal cutthroat trout occurs in four distinct forms. A semi-anadromous or sea-run form is the most well known. Freshwater forms occur in both large and small rivers and streams and lake environments. The native range of the coastal cutthroat trout extends south from the southern coastline of the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska to the Eel River in Northern California. Coastal cutthroat trout are resident in tributary streams and rivers of the Pacific basin and are rarely found more than 100 miles (160 km) from the ocean.
The Rio Grande cutthroat trout, a member of the family Salmonidae, is found in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado in tributaries of the Rio Grande.
The Mexican golden trout is a species of fish in the family Salmonidae. The species is endemic to high-elevation headwaters of the Fuerte River, Sinaloa River, and Culiacán River drainages in the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico.
A cutbow is an interspecific fertile hybrid between a rainbow trout and a cutthroat trout. Cutbow hybrids may occur naturally where the native ranges of both species overlap, such as between coastal rainbow trout and coastal cutthroat trout and between Columbia River redband trout and westslope cutthroat trout. While natural separation of spawning habitat limited hybridization in most native populations of rainbows and cutthroats, introduction of non-native hatchery-raised rainbow trout into the native ranges of cutthroat subspecies increased the rate of hybridization. Some native cutthroat populations are, as a result, at risk due to genetic pollution.
The Baja California rainbow trout or San Pedro Martir trout or Nelson's trout is a localized subspecies of the rainbow trout, a freshwater fish in the family Salmonidae.
Dr. Robert J. Behnke was an American fisheries biologist and conservationist who was recognized as a world authority on the classification of salmonid fishes. He was popularly known as "Dr. Trout" or "The Trout Doctor". His seminal work, Trout and Salmon of North America, was published in 2002. He wrote a regular column for Trout Magazine, the quarterly publication of Trout Unlimited. He was a fisheries biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Colorado Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and a professor at Colorado State University in the 1970s. He became a Professor Emeritus at the Department of Fishery and Wildlife Biology at Colorado State University.
Mexican native trout —Mexican rainbow trout, sometimes Baja rainbow trout and Mexican golden trout —occur in the Pacific Ocean tributaries of the Baja California peninsula and in the Sierra Madre Occidental of northwestern Mexico as far south as Victoria de Durango in the state of Durango. Many forms of the Mexican rainbow trout, subspecies of the rainbow trout, have been described. The Mexican golden trout is a recognized species.
The Little Kern golden trout is a brightly colored subspecies of rainbow trout native to the main stem and tributaries of the Little Kern River in Tulare County, California. Together with the California golden trout and the Kern River rainbow trout, the Little Kern golden trout forms what is sometimes referred to as the "golden trout complex" of the Kern River basin.
