Snake River Fine-spotted Cutthroat Trout
Oncorhynchus clarkii behnkei
Snake river cutthroat 2
The only cutthroat subspecies introduced to Colorado as it is native to the snake river drainage in Wyoming. It has been introduced in multiple lower valley rivers and lakes. it is less common in the alpine environments compared to other subspecies here in Colorado. They are becoming more uncommon as they are not stocked as much as they once were but you can still be surprised by finding one in a main stem lower elevation river or lake. It is one of the few cutthroat species that can easily be identified just by looking at it as it has many smaller fine spots. Compared to the other native cutthroat that have larger spots. it also more lacks a bright orange or red belly unlike the native species when spawning. They can grow quite large in our main stream rivers maxing out at 30 inches but most are significantly smaller. They commonly hybridize with rainbows in our rivers to create cut-bows, another reason why they are less common in our rivers as they are being hybridized out.
Sources and Credits
- (c) Ben, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Ben
- (c) gcmorath, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
