The Yellowstone cutthroat trout is so important to the ecosystem of Yellowstone Lake that when the fish declined it had impacts that reverberated across the area. That’s the basic premise of recently released research by a group of scientists from Yellowstone National Park, MSU and the University of Wyoming. Other animals impacted included bald eagles, osprey, grizzly and black bears. Now with lake trout numbers in decline, cutthroat are coming back. But it will be many years before lake trout are fully suppressed, if ever.
Read more about the research in my story in this week’s Montana Untamed at https://billingsgazette.com/outdoors/research-ties-lake-trout-to-changes-in-yellowstone-ecosystem/article_ff8791cd-73cb-59a7-a842-bee4f909ec56.html
(written by Brett French – Outdoors Editor for the Billings Gazette/Montana Untamed)
