Western Chilcotin Ranges

• Main Authors: Bull Trout, Hart Foothills, Hart Ranges, Peace Foothills
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Southern Skeena Mountains; Arctic; Baxter; Skeena; Skeena Mountains; Varden
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.598.1874; http://www.fraserheadwaters.org/publications/Bull trout.pdf

Salvelinus confluentus is endemic to western North America (Haas and McPhail, 1991). S. confluentus and S. malma have a confused taxonomic history. Cytological and genetic studies suggest that a) these two char species are not sister taxa and b) that Dolly Varden are more closely related to Arctic char (S. alpinus) while bull trout are more closely related to the white spotted char (S. leucomaenis) of Asia. However, specific distinction between the two is still in doubt (McPhail and Baxter 1996) based on evidence of extensive hybridization and introgression in the geographic areas where the two species overlap.