Life-history strategies of pike in a high-altitude loch in Scotland

• Main Author: Treasurer, Jim
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 1998
• Subjects: Ecology; Biology; Limnology; Subarctic
• Online Access: http://aquaticcommons.org/4596/; https://www.fba.org.uk/journals/index.php/FF/article/view/220; http://aquaticcommons.org/4596/1/JTreasurer.pdf

Pike, Esox lucius, are present in Loch Callater at their highest altitude and most extreme habitat in the British Isles, with subarctic winter conditions and extended winter ice-cover. The response of pike in this environment is slower growth, due to a shorter growing season and the low availability of forage fish, giving the poorest reported length-at-age for pike in the British Isles. All pike were mature or had spawned in the same year, with gravid ovaries in April and normal recovering ovaries in June-July. As in other lochs with few prey fishes, the larger pike ate small items such as invertebrates.