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Hi all, this message is more specifically for Scott, who asked about how the speciation of dollies and bullies occured. Well, after having a long chat with someone who has studied both species extensively, I can kind of try to answer that here. What happens is, dollies and bullies actually did not evolve from the same ancestor, at least that's what studies have shown. Dollies are more closely related to the arctic char found in the northern region, whereas bullies are closely related to the white spotted char in Asia, found mostly in tropic region. As time passed by, the two populations collided in the same area, ie. Pacific northwest and are able to share the same habitat. People tend to recognize dollies and bull trout as closely related species due to their look alike. There are only several features that can be used to differentiate the two. One would be the length of the mouth, the other would be counting the number of branchiostigial rays (ok, I totally spelt that wrong, but too lazy to check hehe). Bullies tend to grow much larger, whereas dollies are smaller in size. One other way used to differentiate is by DNA analysis, which is done by Dr Taylor at UBC who is also an avid angler. In the past he has identified populations of dollies and bullies in the major lower Mainland watersheds such as the Pitt River, Stave, Harrison, Chehalis and Squamish. The two populations do interbreed, and the hybrids are fertile. These fish are long lived, a one meter long bullie is between 8 to 10 years old! Studies have shown their abundance is quite high in the Fraser system. It is definitely a great fishery that is often not recognized by anglers. Beautiful fish these are though, most photos (mine anyway) don't show the red or pink spots on them clearly, but if you ever catch one, you will realize their colour is simply breath taking. |
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