Bonneville Cutthroat Trout - Natural History

Natural History

Bonneville cutthroats are descended from cutthroat trout that once inhabited the Late Pleistocene-aged Lake Bonneville of Utah, eastern Nevada, and southern Idaho. Since the desiccation of Lake Bonneville into the Great Salt Lake, which is too salty for any kind of fish life, Bonneville cutthroats have been isolated in smaller populations in the headwaters of mountain streams and in lakes of the Bonneville drainage basin. The isolation has resulted in much phenotypic variation among populations.

Bonneville cutthroat trout primarily eat other fish, while smaller individuals and to a lesser extent adults consume a lot of insects and various benthic organisms. They spawn near the mouths of streams over gravel substrate in the springtime, having an incubation period of 24 to 25 days.

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