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Determining The Phylogenetic Relationships Among The Northern Pike (Esox Lucius), The Muskellunge (Esox Masquinongy), And The Silver Pike, Steven W. Foster

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Prioritization of taxa has become a necessity due to limited resources available for conservation. Conservation efforts are often concentrated on those threatened and endangered species with the highest taxonomic importance. The silver pike is a rare game fish, often accounting for less than 1% of a total pike population where it is found. Although silver pike are normally found in association with northern pike, they have distinct morphological characteristics and have not been shown to hybridize with the northern pike. Still, many fisheries biologists consider the silver pike to be a color variant of the northern pike, and to date …