Fun Facts
Life Span
- In captivity the longnose gar has been known to live on average between 22 and 30 years
- The average life of a female in the wild is 20 years while a male rarely live to be older than 10 years of age. This is because longnose gar males mature in roughly half the time as female gar. As a result the expected Life span of the male is significantly shorter than the females
History of the Gar
- The longnose Gar is one of just seven extant species that belong to the family Lepisosteidae (McGrath, 2010).
- Fossil Remains of Gar have dated back to over 100 million years, and many modern species still retain traits from their fossilized ancestors such as an abbreviated heterocercal tail and a spiral valve. Because of this the Gar has earned the name “The Living Fossil”. (McGrath,2010)
Game Fish
- Gar are considered to be a very difficult fish to locate and catch, in order to be successful in capturing a gar bow or spear fishing is recommended
- Gar are not preferred by many anglers because of the wide spread myth that longnose gar eat other game fish. In reality gar only eat fish that are of no economic significance to humans