Translations:Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Nature/Fishes/19/en

Northern Pike

Esox lucius

Northern Pike (Esox lucius)

Where found: E. lucius is found throughout the northern hemisphere, including Russia, Europe, the British Isles, and North America.

Description: Northern pike are most often olive, shading into yellow to white along the belly. The flank is marked with short, light barlike spots and there are a few to many dark spots on the fins. The lower half of the gill cover lacks scales and they have large sensory pores on their head and on the underside of the lower jaw which are part of the lateral line system. Unlike the similar-looking and closely related muskellunge, the northern pike has light markings on a dark body background and fewer than six sensory pores on the underside of each side of the lower jaw.

Diet: Pike are typical ambush predators; they lie in wait for prey, holding perfectly still for long periods and then exhibit remarkable acceleration as they strike. The fish has a distinctive habit of catching its prey sideways in the mouth, killing or immobilizing it with its sharp teeth, and then turning the prey lengthwise to swallow it. It eats mainly fish, but on occasion water voles and ducklings have also been known to fall prey to pike. Pike will aggressively strike at any fish in the vicinity, even at other pike. Young pike have been found dead from choking on a pike of a similar size. Northern pike also feed on frogs, insects and leeches. It has often been suggested that pike optimally forage on prey that are from 25 to 35% of their body length. Also on rare occasions pike have been reported to have eaten young bald eagles.

Reproduction: The Northern Pike spawns beneath the ice in the Spring. A female is followed by four or five smaller males as she seeks vegetative cover in the shallows. When the eggs are released and fertilized, the stick to the vegetation where they are abandoned by the parents.