{"id":8677,"date":"2013-09-02T07:40:39","date_gmt":"2013-09-02T14:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=8677"},"modified":"2013-09-02T19:50:29","modified_gmt":"2013-09-03T02:50:29","slug":"kokanee-spawning-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=8677","title":{"rendered":"Kokanee spawning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>One of the grand events of the year is the late-summer spawning of the Kokanee. These landlocked sockeye salmon are native to the myriad lakes of western North America. They are plentiful in Kootenay Lake, particularly around the eponymous Kokanee Creek.<\/p>\n<p>The name Kokanee comes from the Okanagan language and refers to the silver colour these fish have for most of their lives. Yet, when spawning their bodies turn red and their heads turns green. [On the etymology of the word, <em>Kokanee<\/em>, see the comment by Eileen Pearkes, below.]<\/p>\n<p>So far, this year&#8217;s run seems to have been later and smaller than usual. Below are some pictures.<\/p>\n<p>Kokanee maintain their positions by gently swimming into the current.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8685\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/kokanee130901bs.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>While most fish have red bodies and green heads, a small number have yet to make the full transition from silver.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8680\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/kokanee130827bs.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Males develop brighter colours than females, a hump, hooked jaws, and teeth used for fighting.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8678\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/kokanee130831as.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This group seems to be peeking out of a shaded portion of the stream.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8689\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/kokanee130827as.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Kokanee are not alone in the stream. Here is the parr of a rainbow trout swimming with them. When big enough, the parr will feed on Kokanee eggs, just as the adult rainbows feed on the Kokanee themselves.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8691\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/parrmarks130901s.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And just because the underwater perspective is uncommon, here is another picture.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8686\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/kokanee130901as.jpg\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; One of the grand events of the year is the late-summer spawning of the Kokanee. These landlocked sockeye salmon are native to the myriad lakes of western North America. They are plentiful in Kootenay Lake, particularly around the eponymous &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=8677\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8677"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8698,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8677\/revisions\/8698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}