Escaped Hatchery Trout Pose Hybridization Risk to Native Species in Flathead River Basin
Montana's Flathead River Basin is home to several species of native fish, including Westslope cutthroat trout. A recent investigation by Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks reports there were inadvertent releases of non-native rainbow trout into the river system. This could cause major damage to an already vulnerable population of native trout. Read the full story here from the Flathead Beacon.
From the article:
For nearly two decades, a growing body of evidence has revealed that crossbreeding between certain fish species is detrimental to the persistence of native trout in the Flathead River system, providing natural resource managers with a clear-sighted conservation strategy: preserve the drainage-specific genetic adaptations hardwired into these wild trout over the course of millennia and they’ll be better equipped to survive wildfires, floods and drought in the future.
To understand the perils of hybridization, one need not look any further than Montana’s state fish, the westslope cutthroat trout. Once the most widely distributed cutthroat trout subspecies in North America, westslope cutts — so named for the side of the Continental Divide they occupy — now inhabit just 10% of their historic range.
The primary threat to westslope cutthroat trout? Invasive rainbow trout.
Read the full story here from the Flathead Beacon.
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