34: Colorado River Cutthroat Trout
I write to you from Arapahoe, Ute, and Cheyenne land. I am interested in learning about the different animals that live in the place where I was born. I want to mention that biological classification as taught by western science has its roots in racism, sexism, and transphobia – here’s a good explainer about why.
Every time we come to a fish on the list I initially feel kind of bored – can’t wait to get to a cuddly mammal the next day! – but then as soon as I start reading I get sucked into being extremely interested. It happened again with today’s animal, the Colorado River Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhyncus clarkii pleuriticus). Let’s start with this paragraph from Orvis News which I guess is a corporate blog?:
“Considered one of the more beautiful trout in North America [PASSIVE VOICE HERE – VERY COY], the Colorado River cutthroat trout… once inhabited the high-elevation streams and lakes of the Green and Colorado River basins in parts of five states. As was the case with many cutthroat subspecies, however, the arrival of European settlers in the West led to massive declines in CRCT populations [FAMILIAR STORY TO MY READERS]. Where the fish are still found, anglers prize CRCT for their willingness to eat flies [??? FEELS LIKE I DON’T GET ANGLER CULTURE], the beauty of their high-country habitat, and their spectacular colors. The cutthroat-slam programs [????] of both Wyoming and Utah require anglers to land a Colorado River cutthroat to complete the collection of native fish species.”
Naturally this led me on to the homepage of the Wyoming Cutt-Slam. Honestly this webpage is super well designed (look at that integrated GIS!) and made me excited about the idea. As soon as I learn anything about fishing beyond the one (1) hour of fly fishing instruction my friend Alyse gave me three summers ago, I will be on my way to northwestern Wyoming to Cutt-Slam.
I was staring at the Latin name with an inkling of a thought about Egypt… several Google attempts later I realized that I was thinking of Oxyrhynchus, known to the ancient Egyptians as Pr-Medjed. Oxyrhynchus is the Greek name for this city, famous today for the massive quantity of papyrus scrolls found there by archaeologists. The name in Greek means “sharp-nosed” – which I automatically assumed it meant for the fish too, just with a slightly different spelling. Not so – “onco” means lump or bend, rather than sharp, though the “rhyn” part still relates to nose/snout. The genus Oncorhyncus includes both salmon and trout.
I’ll leave you with a remarkable story about a subspecies of the CRCT who was thought to be extinct, found, and had to be saved from a wildfire. Here’s a preview to convince you that the popup ads on the Denver Post will still be worth it:
“Yet within a few months of confirming the remnant group of San Juan cutthroat trout — transplanted on a hunch in 1989 for safekeeping in isolated Hermosa Creek headwaters, then verified this year against a 144-year-old sample at the Smithsonian — a raging wildfire north of Durango threatened their survival… As flames from the 54,129-acre 416 Fire spread toward the stashed cutthroats this summer, a Colorado Parks and Wildlife team — including a biologist who devoted three decades to identifying them as a unique subspecies — hiked to those headwaters and rescued 30 of the trout.”
Tomorrow we get our state mammal!