Embedded Files
Work in progress!
Prelude
It is hard to deny the beauty of cutthroat trout, especiallly in stream form. While I caught my first cuttie as a youth fishing the coastal waters of Oregon, I didn't experience the stunning beauty of cutties in stream form until I moved to Nevada. Just wow! As part of my effort to complete the California and Nevada trout challenges, I've learned a lot about cutthroats across in these states.
My friend Jeff Evans, knowing my love of these creatures and my desire to complete the Western Native Trout Challenge, gave me a hardcopy of Cutthroat Trout: Evolutionary Biology and Taxonomy , a special publication of the American Fishery Society edited by Patrick Trotter and others. As any other cutthroat nerd would do, I immediately read it cover to cover. This articles is based, in part, on this publication.
A wild, native Lahontan cutthroat trout in stream form.
The Cutthroat Trout Complex
Cutthroat Trout are a cold-water sport fish found across the northwestern portion of North America, from the southern Rockies in New Mexico to Prince William Sound in Alaska. There are four species of cutthroat trout: the coastal cutthroat trout, the Lahontan cutthroat trout, the Rocky Mountain cutthroat trout, and the westslope cutthroat trout, which together make up the cutthroat trout complex. See the linked pages for species-specific information.
They are a natural icon of the western states with seven of these states have selecting a cutthroat trout to be their state fish. Nevada has named the Lahontan cutthroat trout its state fish. Both Idaho and Wyoming, which both are home to native westslope and Rocky Mountain cutthroat trout, have named the complex of cutthroat trout as their state fish. Montana has named the black-spotted cutthroat trout as its state fish, this name refers collectively to the two species of cutthroat trout subspecies native to the state: the westslope and the Rocky Mountain cutthroat trout. Utah has named the Bonneville cutthroat its state fish and New Mexico as named the Rio Grande cutthroat trout its state fish, both are subspecies of the Rocky Mountain cutthroat trout.
Cutthroat trout are named after the distinctive slash of orangish color on the underside of their lower jaw. Cutt or cuttie are slang terms for a cutthroat trout.
The distinctive slash of a cutthroat trout, here a Yellowstone cutthroat trout.
A cutthroat trout wanting desert before it finished its main course. Photo by Dan Hottle/USFWS.
They are the frequent target of fly fishers, either due to stunning beauty, especially in stream form, or their size, especially in lake-form. The world record cutthroat trout, a Lahontan, caught at Pyramid Lake, weighed 41 pounds.
Cutthroat trout are opportunistic feeders. They will try to eat most anything they can catch. Some populations exhibit piscivorous behaviors. Lake-form Lahontan cutthroat in Pyramid Lake regularly feed on the Cui-ui lake sucker and the Tui chub. They are known to occasionally gulp down fish of half their length.
Cutthroat trout, like rainbow trout, are salmonids. And, like rainbow trout, they are spring spawners.
Two species of cutthroat, the coastal and the westslope, share their natural range with native rainbow trout. They naturally hybridize with rainbow trout, producing fertile bowcutts (or cutbows). Impact of hybridizaiton with native rainbow was minimal to both species due to their spawning times not significantly overlapping. Hybridization with introduced rainbow trout results in genetic pollution and is a major threat to preservation of all cutthroat species. Hybridization between different subspecies of cutthroat is also a threat. 2 cutthroat subspecies are currently considered extinct both due to genetic pollution caused by hybridization with introduced rainbow trout.
The conservation status of extant cutthroat species and subspecies varies from the critically imperiled Paiute cutthroat trout subspecies of Lahontan cutthroat trout to the secure coastal cutthroat trout.
Evolutionary Lineages
All cutthroat trout are believed to have evolved from a common ancestral (Lahontan basin) cutthroat trout species, with four major evolutionary lineages: the coastal, the Lahontan basin, the upper Columbia / Missouri River, and the upper Snake River lineages. Across 4 major lineages there are 25 subspecies (or uniquely identifiable evolutionary units) supported by the available evidence.
2 of these 25 subspecies are currently considered extinct: the Yellowfin cutthroat trout in the Upper Snake River line and Alvord cutthroat trout in the Lahontan Basin line.
Cutthrout evolutionary lineages. Excerpt from presentation given by P. Trotter, Newport, 2019.
The Modern Cutthroat Taxonomy
The cutthroat trout complex consists of four species in the genus Oncorhynchus, one for each of the major evolutionary lineages.
Coastal cutthroat trout (O. clarkii) representing the coastal lineage
Coastal cutthroat type subspecies (O. c. clarkii)
Lahontan cutthroat trout (O. henshawi) representing the Lahontan basin lineage
Lahontan cutthroat trout type subspecies (O. h. henshawi) of the western Lahontan basin,
Alvord cutthroat trout (O. h. alvordensis), extinct,
Humboldt cutthroat trout (O. h. humboldtensis),
Paiute cutthroat trout (O. h. seleniris), critically imperiled,
Quinn River cuthroat trout (O. h. ssp.),
Coyote Basin cutthroat trout (O. h. ssp.), also referred to as the Willow-Whitehorse (Basin) cutthroat trout.
Rocky Mountain cutthroat trout (O. virginalis) representing the upper Snake River lineage (also known as the Yellowstone lineage)
Rio Grande cutthroat trout (O. v. virginalis)
Bear River cutthroat trout (O. v. ssp.)
Bonneville cutthroat trout (O. v. utah)
Colorado River cutthroat trout (O. v. pleuriticus)
Green River cutthroat trout (O. v. ssp.)
Greenback cutthroat trout (O. v. stomias)
San Juan cutthroat trout (O. v. ssp.)
Yellowfin cutthroat trout (O. v. macdonaldi), extinct
Yellowstone cutthroat trout (O. v. virginalis)
Westslope cutthroat trout (O. lewisi) representing the upper Columbia / Missouri River lineage (also known as the Westslope lineage).
Missouri River cutthroat trout (O. l. lewisi)
Neoboreal cutthroat trout (O. l. ssp.)
Coeur d' Alene cutthroat trout (O. l. ssp.)
St. Joe cutthroat trout (O. l. ssp.)
North Fork Clearwater cutthroat trout (O. l. ssp.)
Clearwater headwater cutthroat trout (O. l. ssp.)
Clearwater - Eastern Cascades cutthroat trout (O. l. ssp.)
Salmon River cutthroat trout (O. l. ssp)
John Day cutthroat trout (O. l. ssp.)
Distribution
Cutthroat trout can be found in 12 western states of the United States and 2 provinces and 2 territories of Canada.
Coastal cutthroat trout can be found in tributaries of the Pacific Ocean from Prince William Sound in Alaska down to the Eel River in California.
Westslope cutthroat trout can be found in Idaho, Washington, Montana, Oregon, Wyoming, British Columbia, and Alberta.
Lahontan cutthroat trout can be found in Nevada, California, Oregon, and Utah.
Rocky Mountain cutthroat trout can be found in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Idaho and Nevada.
Distribution of Cutthroat Trout Subspecies (by N8vetrout, unmodified, CC BY-SA 4.0)
This article was authored by Kurt Zeilenga. Suggestions on how to improve this article may be sent to info@ztrout.org.
Additional Reading
Cutthroat Trout - Evolutionary Biology and Taxomony by Trotter, P., et. al (2018).
Revised Classification and Taxonomy of Cutthroat Trout, presentation by Trotter, P. ( 2024).
Native Trout Fly Fishing (nativetroutflyfishing.com) by Gary Marston
Identifying Cutthroat Trout by Hayden Cook, Utah Trout Unlimited.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse