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Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

newscientist.com

111–120 of 130 posts

Re: Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see how the evolutionary advantage of such hardened eggs would be huge!

Evolved so they *only* hatch after passing through the digestive system of a waterfowl might be a good evolutionary trick to avoid inbreeding. Your eggs won't hatch until they're well away from your relatives.

In my experience, inbreeding doesn't seem to bother fish very much. Certainly you don't want it to happen too much, but I have several species of fish that have inbred and they look fantastic. I'm sure if I continued this line with absolutely no introduction of new genetics, some problems could arise... But after a few generations, they're doing great.

I will add new genetics to the line soon, for what it's worth. It isn't an experiment to see what will happen. In most cases I never expected them to breed to begin with.

Re: Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

#112
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Yeah, but at least two live fish (a male and female) being dropped into the same remote lake, then finding each other at spawning time seems increasing implausible. Never say never, but ..." It just needs to be one pregnant fish. (or many eggs)

To the best of my knowledge fish eggs are fertilised outside the body

Not all.

There are many internal or quasi-internal fertilization oviparous species.

And, in sharks at least, ovoviviparous and even placental species

Re: Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

#113
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we know anything about their morals, aside from that they kill immigrants at sight?

Given how other Andaman islanders have been treated by outsiders hostility towards people who come there uninvited is understandable. People going to their island are not "immigrants" - no intention of remaining.

I really doubt they try to determine the immigration intentions of strangers they encounter.

From what I hear, they kill any outsider within spear range.

Re: Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

#115
post #114

Related: Fish were introduced to Crater Lake in the US a little over a hundred years ago, and is generally considered to have been the wrong thing to do. If you go there, you're free to fish to your heart's content.

Generally by who?

I think by almost everyone.

Crater Lake is a pretty special lake: It was formed purely from rainwater into a crater over the last 7000 years. It is still the clearest lake in the world.

With fish, however, came a whole ecosystem. When fish die they decompose. I don't know the details, but the whole process is leading the lake to be less and less clear.

(Some people also consider it the bluest lake in the world, but that title tends to be disputed).

Just checked again and it seems you need to release any bull trout caught there, as they are now endangered. Pity.

Re: Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once found a recently-dead minnow in the outfield where I was playing software. That was a weird one.

I've heard of remote work before but having you play software in the outfield seems a little extreme...

oh god

Re: Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Birds can drop fish after they've captured them. Not longer than a year now, we were visiting my wife's family, and me and my father in law got to Walmart there was a dead fish in the front, but when we mentioned it to my wife who got there before us (separate cars) she said it was struggling for life when they saw it, I don't think there was a lake nearby enough, but I wouldn't be surprised if birds have accidentall…

Interestingly, it is not always the case that birds can drop what they catch. I never knew this until I watched an eagle struggle to shore after it caught a fish that turned out to be too large for it to fly off with or do what it needed to do to be able to release the fish until it got to land. I have no idea about the swimming ability of an eagle but they certainly can't swim when they have a large fish in their cl…

Oh yeah, they have a kind of ratchet on the tendons. It needs the load to be on terra firma for it to let go

Re: Hunter-gatherers introduced fish to a mountain lake 7000 years ago

#119
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In California, it's because people (the state department of fish and wildlife) put the fish there. You can even see their scheduled fish plantings online: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FishPlants/PublicPlantSearch

https://theonion.com/wildlife-officials-restock-lake-by-drop...

Also, TIL about the Antonov AN-2 ("Wait... that kind of looks like a Cessna Caravan, but is a biplane, and is a tail dragger... what sort of aircraft is that?")
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