Home Range of the Esox lucius

Abstract

The North American Northern Pike, Esox Lucius, occurs in clear vegetated lakes, quiet pools and backwaters of creeks and small to large rivers. E. Lucius is usually solitary and highly territorial and is distinguished by its long, flat, 'duck-bill' snout, and the rearward position of its dorsal and anal fins. E. lucius is a highly popular and aggressive gamefish, the Northern Pike is one of the most sought-after species. Pike are insatiable eaters, and are easily caught due to their set of razor-sharp teeth and strong bite (fishbase.org 2010). The E. lucius choose to hunt their prey using a “hunt and wait” style of predation. This will usually contribute to their relatively inactive lifestyle, where they stay in a fairly small home range and remain fairly inactive. However, E. lucius has been documented to be more active under low light conditions. The activity of E. lucius will be monitored at various times throughout two weeks at random times using activity/mortality transmitters. With these it will be able to tell which times throughout the day the subjects are most or least active. The signal will be a very fast chirp for mortality, slow for inactivity, and irregular for activity.