Westslope cutthroat trout
| Westslope cutthroat trout | |
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| Westslope cutthroat trout | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Salmoniformes |
| Family: | Salmonidae |
| Genus: | Oncorhynchus |
| Species: | O. clarki |
| Subspecies: | O. c. lewisi |
| Trinomial name | |
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Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi (G. Suckley, 1856) |
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| The historic distribution of westslope cutthroat trout in the United States (modified from Behnke 1992). The large region consists primarily of the upper Columbia River and upper Missouri River basins; some waters in the eastern part of this region may not have been occupied historically (MTFWP, in litt. 1998). Also shown are the Lake Chelan and Methow River drainages in Washington and the John Day River drainage in Oregon. | |
| Synonyms | |
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The westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi), also known as the black-spotted trout, common cutthroat trout and red-throated trout is a subspecies of the cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki) and is a freshwater fish in the salmon family (family Salmonidae) of order Salmoniformes. The cutthroat is the Montana state fish. This subspecies is a species of concern in its Montana and British Columbia ranges and is considered threatened in its native range in Alberta.
The scientific name of the westslope cutthroat trout is Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi. The subspecies was first described in the journals of explorer William Clark from specimens obtained during the Lewis and Clark Expedition from the Missouri River near Great Falls, Montana. Cutthroat trout were given the name Salmo clarki in honor of William Clark, who co-led the expedition of 1804–1806. One of Lewis and Clark's missions was to describe the flora and fauna encountered during the expedition. The type specimen of S. clarki was described by naturalist John Richardson in 1836 from a tributary of the lower Columbia River, identified as the "Katpootl", which was perhaps the Lewis River as there was a Multnomah village of similar name at the confluence. This type specimen was most likely the coastal cutthroat subspecies. In 1853, naturalist George Suckley while working for the Pacific Railroad Survey led by Isaac Stevens collected specimens of westslope cutthroat trout by fly fishing below the Great Falls on the Missouri River. In 1856, he described the trout as Salar lewisi to honor explorer Meriwether Lewis. In David Starr Jordan and Barton Warren Evermann's A Check-list of the Fishes and Fishlike Vertebrates of North and Middle America (1896), the name Salmo mykiss lewisi was given to Yellowstone trout or cut-throat trout and included a reference to specimens collected from the Missouri River by George Suckley. In 1898, Jordan and Evermann changed the name of cutthroat trout to Salmo clarki.Salmo clarki lewisi persisted as the subspecies name for both the Yellowstone cutthroat and westslope cutthroat trout until 1971 when fisheries biologist Robert J. Behnke gave the name Salmo clarki bouvieri to the Yellowstone cutthroat with Salmo clarki lewisi reserved for the westslope cutthroat trout.
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