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I'm gonna have to get out there to UT, we don't have tiger trout in NY. Gorgious
Not naturally but I do know one place they are stocked that you can open water fish only.
Yes we do. And yes, naturally.......not common however.
A natural tiger? Tigers are a stocked fish. You can't have a natural tiger because they are a sterile intergeneric fish.
Where would that happen to be? Wouldn't mind crossing another trout off the ol' list.
Tigers themselves may be sterile but they are the offspring of a brook trout and a brown. Since both spawn in the fall, any stream that has naturally occuring brooks and browns in it has the chance of producing tiger trout. It doesn't happen often, and isn't common, but yes, they occur in the wild. It seems like for whatever reason, certain watersheds produce them while many other do not.........conditons have to be perfect.
I know they are a cross - intergeneric - but they have to heat shock the fertilized egg to create the extra set of chromosomes (the brown is a salmon and the brook is a char)... How would that naturally happen? I'm not doubting it, just curious.
While uncommon it happens. Extra chromosomes occur even in humans on occasion i.e. Downs Syndrome.An excerpt from a statement by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, regarding Shenandoah NP : " Hybridization with brown trout has been documented in every park stream containing cohabitant populations of both species. The progeny resulting from male brook trout and female brown trout are known generally as “tiger trout”. Within the few park streams where both species coexist, tiger trout are occasionally encountered. Interestingly, tiger trout encounters seem to occur during periods when the brown trout population is depressed creating conditions where female brown trout are more likely to be encountered and spawned by male brook trout. Reciprocal crosses between male brown trout and female brook trout have never been observed in the wild. These progeny known as “leopard trout” have only been produced artificially among captives and are morphologically different in external comparison to tiger trout. "
Great looking fish!!!
:ojealous