Seasonal and diel effects on the activity of northern pike studied by high‐resolution positional telemetry

Abstract

– Temperate lakes can be ice covered for several months each year, yet little is known about the behaviour and activity of the fish during the cold season. As northern pike represents the top of the food web in many northern temperate lakes and may structure the ecosystem both directly and indirectly, a detailed understanding of the behaviour of this species during winter is important. We continuously monitored the activity of adult northern pike (Esox lucius) in a small temperate lake from late summer to winter for two consecutive years using an automatic acoustic positional telemetry system. Four subsample periods representing different temperature regimes from each year were chosen for further investigation. The results revealed that pike activity was similar between seasons. In all periods, a distinct diel pattern, showing increased activity during day as compared to night, was evident. Our findings indicate that the fish component of temperate lentic ecosystems can be more active during the cold season than previously assumed. This may have implications for the structuring effect of pike on the lower trophic levels.

Pike (Esox lucius L.) on the edge: consistent individual movement patterns in transitional waters of the western Baltic

“…Traditionally, pike has been considered to be mainly stationary with a restricted home range outside of spawning migrations (Craig, 1996). However, there is growing evidence from studies using active telemetry and other methods monitoring individual swimming behaviour that pike movements can be unpredictable and extensive (Jepsen et al, 2001;Koed et al, 2006;Knight et al, 2008;Baktoft et al, 2012). This is supported by the present study, showing that pike in a 5 km 2 large brackish area utilise the entire lagoon both during a year and regularly on shorter time scales (days to months), suggesting larger and more overlapping home ranges than might be expected by a stationary predator.…”

Migration, growth patterns, and diet of pike (Esox lucius) in a river reservoir and its inflowing river

“…Site fidelity of repeat spawners may offer an opportunity for management to more effectively reduce the population of this unwanted predator. For a part of the year, fish were tracked once per month, and some short-term movement may therefore have been missed (Baktoft et al, 2012;Pauwels et al, 2014). However, a similar pattern of individual variation in movement, showing both stationary and extensively moving fish, has also been recorded in other studies of pike (e.g., Jepsen et al, 2001;Vehanen et al, 2006;Kobler et al, 2009).…”

Comparative spatial ecology of sympatric adult muskellunge and northern pike during a one-year period in an urban reach of the Rideau River, Canada

“…Indeed, a recent study observed no differences in the activity of northern pike throughout the entire year (Baktoft et al 2012); however, this study was completed in a small lake (~1 ha), which may have constrained activity. This was clearly not the case in the Rideau River where, despite seasonal differences in the size of their range, northern pike remained in the same core areas throughout the year and the outer boundaries of their core ranges expanded and contracted among seasons.…”

“…Muskellunge (Esox masquinongy) and northern pike (Esox lucius) are the two largest members of the esocidae family and are often the apex predators of the freshwater systems they inhabit (Casselman et al 1999;Baktoft et al 2012). Muskellunge are found exclusively in North America and are known as a Great Lakes endemic species (Kerr 2011), while northern pike have a circumpolar distribution (Harvey 2009).…”