Canis lupus hominis

The northern pike has a holarctic distribution. The species that is found in England is the same one that is found in Michigan. The ones in Europe get much larger than the ones in North America.

However, we North Americans have our own unique pike species– the muskellunge or “muskie.”

These fish had sort of mythological qualities to me when I was growing up. I thought of them as being something like the equivalent of freshwater sharks. However, when I learned of barracuda, well, that’s the image than came to mind.

I remember hearing of them biting people in the river, along with stories of them taking ducklings as they swam along the water’s surface.

The Little Kanawha River of my native habitat is known for its muskies. Stories of great river monsters living with its pools captured my youthful imagination.

They are a sport fish. Anglers go to a lot of trouble to catch them.

But they are big, as big as the European northern pike.

Our mystery fish is neither of these species.

It is actually both.

This fish is a hybrid of the northern pike and the muskellunge, which are both in the genus Esox.

The fish is called a tiger muskie.

Following Haldane’s Rule, the males are sterile; the females are sometimes fertile.

(And that needed a turkey leg.)

This hybrid occurs naturally, and some states breed them intentionally in their hatcheries for stocking purposes.

Hybrid fish aren’t really all that special.

Sauger and walleye produce saugeye.

Koi and goldfish hybridize and make relatively ugly fish.

I wonder, though, if there are any genes in either North American northern pike or muskellunge that come from the other species. If some of the females are fertile, there exists an ability for there to be a gene flow between them.

I don’t know of any studies that suggest this, but it seems to me likely that these creatures could affect each other’s genetics and evolution.