What's Your Nature?

Become a Nature Up North explorer to share your encounters with wild things and wild places in New York's North Country. Post your wildlife sightings, landscape shots, photos from your outings, and even your organization's events!

Lake Trout - Animal

Posted by Amanda Carter,
North Country explorer from Dallas, Texas
February 20, 2013

I saw this fish swimming around with a turtle at the Wild Center, and snapped a shot while it was alone in the frame. I believe this is a lake trout, a freshwater fish with a long body, a forked tail and a squat head. This species is typically gray and covered with cream spots, which are faintly visible here. In the North, they reside in shallow lakes and rivers, and feed on mainly other fish but also insect larvae and plankton. Lake trout are commonly fished for sport and in the Adirondack region they are threatened by overfishing. Their populations in New York were also threatened by non-native sea lampreys during the 1950s and 60s. Efforts to restore and sustain lake trout populations have not been entirely successful.

Comments

Sam byrne

This is actually a northern pike. Similar white spots, but notice the concave forehead (it dips in and then turns up at the mouth), and how the dorsal fin is located towards the tail.

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