:''The name "silver trout" is also sometimes used for

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...

.'' The silver trout (''Salvelinus agassizii'') is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

char Char may refer to: People *Char Fontane, American actress *Char Margolis, American spiritualist * René Char (1907–1988), French poet *The Char family of Colombia: ** Fuad Char, Colombian senator ** Alejandro Char Chaljub, mayor of Barranquilla ...

species or variety that inhabited a few waters in

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

prior to 1939, when a biological survey conducted on the Connecticut watershed by the

New Hampshire Fish and Game Department The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department (NHF&G) is a department within the government of New Hampshire in the United States. The Fish and Game Department manages New Hampshire's fish, game, and aquatic plant resources. Structure The Department ...

found none.

Description

The silver trout was often a foot long and was said to actually be olive green in color. In the lakes silver trout inhabited, large quantities of the species appeared in October to spawn.

Systematic position

To formally describe the species and prevent local fishermen from overharvesting in the absence of bag limits, specimens were sent to Harvard and the U.S. National Museum for identification, where the fish was first described as a form of

lake trout The lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush'') is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, it can also ...

(''Salvelinus namaycush''), and later as a variety of

brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere ...

(''Salvelinus fontinalis''). The silver trout was described as ''Salmo agassizii'' in 1885. W.C.Kendall, who published a famous monograph on New England chars in 1914, in turn concluded that the silver trout was related to the

Arctic char The Arctic char or Arctic charr (''Salvelinus alpinus'') is a cold-water fish in the family Salmonidae, native to alpine lakes and arctic and subarctic coastal waters. Its distribution is Circumpolar North. It spawns in freshwater and populatio ...

(''Salvelinus alpinus''). Re-examining the 13 silver trout specimens in the U.S. National Museum by matching the markings on the dorsal fin and tail, the numbers of vertebrae, and the array of pelvic fin rays and between different species, Robert J. Behnke concluded that the silver trout was most closely related to the brook trout, while the divergence was still concluded to be enough to place it outside of typical ''S. fontinalis''. Behnke concluded the silver trout evolved from brook trout ancestors in New England lakes with deep, cold, clear, well-oxygenated depths as a planctivorous fish.

Distribution

The silver trout was an exceedingly rare fish, having become trapped by changed drainage systems in two New Hampshire lakes ( Dublin/Monadnock Pond and Christine Lake in Stark) that were left as successors of

Lake Hitchcock Lake Hitchcock was a glacial lake that formed approximately 15,000 years ago in the late Pleistocene epoch. After the Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated, glacial ice melt accumulated at the terminal moraine and blocked up the Connecticut River, cre ...

, a very large glacial lake that persisted for 4000 years where the silver trout probably evolved from brook trout. In the deep waters of these lakes, cut off from other species, the silver trout had no natural predators.

Extinction

By the late 19th century, as each lake developed its own steady summer tourism, recreational

fishermen A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recreat ...

who sought to increase their catches began to introduce new fish species, and these eventually overwhelmed the native silver trout.

Yellow perch The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch, American river perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samu ...

, which eat trout

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

, and lake trout, which hold the same ecological niche, as well as eat and hybridize with other char species, were particularly devastating. Other species were also introduced that have proved to be devastating to native trout species in other waters, the

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, ''Salmo trutta'' morph ...

Atlantic salmon The Atlantic salmon (''Salmo salar'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is the third largest of the Salmonidae, behind Siberian taimen and Pacific Chinook salmon, growing up to a meter in length. Atlantic salmon are ...

, and

rainbow smelt The rainbow smelt (''Osmerus mordax'') is a North American species of fish of the family Osmeridae. Walleye, trout, and other larger fish prey on these smelt. The rainbow smelt prefer juvenile ciscoes, zooplankton such as calanoid copepods ('' L ...

. While the silver trout is most likely lost, success stories like the

Pyramid Lake (Nevada) Pyramid Lake is the geographic sink of the basin of the Truckee River, northeast of Reno, Nevada, United States. Pyramid Lake is the biggest remnant of ancient Lake Lahontan, the colossal inland sea that once covered most of Nevada. It is app ...

Lahontan cutthroat trout Lahontan cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawi'') is the largest subspecies of cutthroat trout, and the state fish of Nevada. It is one of three subspecies of cutthroat trout that are listed as federally threatened. Natural history ...

and the Sunapee golden trout exist, and there may still be hope for the silver trout.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q142933 Salvelinus Cold water fish Fish of North America becoming extinct since 1500 Taxa named by Samuel Garman Fish described in 1885 Extinct animals of the United States Natural history of New Hampshire Species endangered by invasive species