Nutrition
Our mothers always tell us to eat healthy
and a variety of food, to get all the nutrition we need, well
for pike this is not really the case. For most adult pike their
main diet is fish and a lot of it. Though they do eat mainly
fish they have been also known to consume other organisms, even
birds.
Pike are carnivorous and are known to eat other pike, fish
smaller than it, frogs, crawfish, birds, and even small mammals.
They have the ability to eat something that is one third of its
size. To acquire prey pike have sharp teeth along with a complex
skull and jaw structures that allow them to capture and swallow
their prey whole.
Researchers did a study of 491 pike in the River Frome using
electrofishing to study what was contained within a pikes
stomach. Out of all the contents of what was eaten 99% of it was
fish and the other percent was made up of invertebrates. Some of
the fish that pike feed on in the Frome River are
Leuciscus
leuciscus, Phoxinmus phoxinus (minnow), Gobio gobio
(gudgeon), Salmo salar (salmon),
Salmo trutta
(trout), Thymallus thymallus (grayling),
Cottus gobia (bullhead), and Esox lucius (northern
pike). The study also found that at one year old pike can
consume 41.53 kilograms per ha per year and at four years old
57.96 kilograms per ha per year.
To see a pike in action check out this youtube video,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMMcR-FGqeI&feature=related.
To exchange gases with the water northern pike use gills. Once inside the body the pike uses a closed circulatory system to distribute nutrients and gases.
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Website created Spring 2008 by Brian Haslag