Endangered
Lake lamprey
Entosphenus macrostomus
The lake lamprey, Entosphenus macrostoma, also known as the Vancouver lamprey or Cowichan lamprey, a recent derivative of the Pacific lamprey, is a freshwater lamprey endemic to two North American lakes: Lake Cowichan and Mesachie Lake in Vancouver Island, Canada.
Appearance
An adult lake lamprey is dark blue or dark brown with a lighter belly, and the body is 11.8-27.3 cm in length. The lamprey's disc-like mouth is filled with sharp teeth. The Vancouver lamprey has eyes on the top of its head, two dorsal fins, a caudal fin, and an anal fin.
Range and habitat
The lake lamprey is found only in the Cowichan and Mesachie Lakes on Vancouver Island, and is not migratory. The lamprey lives and spawns in shallow gravel areas and typically remains in the lake rather than venturing up streams. The ammocoetes larvae are found in silt depositions along the shores of both lakes.
The lake lamprey, Entosphenus macrostoma, also known as the Vancouver lamprey or Cowichan lamprey, a recent derivative of the Pacific lamprey, is a freshwater lamprey endemic to two North American lakes: Lake Cowichan and Mesachie Lake in Vancouver Island, Canada. The lamprey was originally called the Vancouver Island lamprey, until an error in filing shortened it to the Vancouver lamprey.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
The adults of several lamprey species, among them those of the lake lamprey, are hematophagous predators that latch onto other fish species to feed on their bodily fluids. Young salmonids such as cutthroat trout and the coho salmon are common prey.
Wounds have been known to penetrate into the body cavity of hosts, though the majority of prey are only scarred and are not fatally wounded. Only 15% of prey are mortally injured from lamprey feedings. Lampreys breed once in their lives around 8 years of age.
In crisis
Lake lamprey is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Lake lamprey, Wikidata item Q4848018. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
