Reintroduction of the Canadian gray wolf in Yellowstone National Park was considered a ecological victory for wildlife biologists in 1995, while other groups, including ranchers and big game outfitters, wondered why bringing an apex predator back after its elimination years earlier was a good thing.
The recent presence of tiger trout in the Teton River in Southeast Idaho is not so dramatic, though it has raised the collective eyebrow of both the angling community and Idaho Department of Fish and Game fisheries biologists.
“It’s interesting that in one of the last strongholds of the Yellowstone cutthroat trout (IDFG) would allow a non-native species to be stocked in this valley,” said Kim Keeley, Friends of the Teton River board member and a founding member of the Teton Valley chapter of Trout Unlimited. “Because it was sort of inevitable that (tiger trout) would get into the main stem of the Teton River.”
Unlike Yellowstone’s wolf population, tiger trout are sterile. A cross between a brown trout and a brook trout, the tiger trout has no ability to procreate, thus making it less of a threat to the native species, the Yellowstone cutthroat trout.
LINK (via: Idaho State Journal)
The tiger trout is definitely a “non-native” species in Idaho, but usually the phrase “invasive species” is reserved for those that can reproduce and spread.
Any fly angler who holds a fish like that should have his gear taken away.
No fish… invasive or not should be held like that. If you’re going to kill it…fine, but no need to break it’s jaw and put it in pain for a terrible pic like this.
Why would you even post this pic Moldy? Hold yourself to a higher standard.
Who cares about the tiger trout. They should all be killed. They are a test tube fish that don’t belong in our public streams and rivers.