Lake char facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Lake char |
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| Salvelinus umbla juvenile | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Salvelinus
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| Species: |
umbla
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| Synonyms | |
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Salmo umbla Linnaeus, 1758 |
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The lake char (scientific name: Salvelinus umbla) is a type of fish. It belongs to the char family. You can find it in some lakes in the Alps mountain region of Europe.
These fish usually live in the deeper parts of lakes. They eat small creatures like crustaceans and insects. They also eat other animals that live on the lake bottom, called benthic fauna. Bigger lake char might also eat other fish. During their spawning season (when they lay eggs), they look for places with rocky or stony bottoms. These spots are often on steep slopes, about 30 to 120 meters deep.
Where Lake Char Live
This type of char lives in lakes found in alpine and subalpine areas. These are lakes formed by glaciers in central Europe. You can find them from France to Austria and from Germany to Northern Italy. People have also moved them to other high-altitude lakes.
Lake Char Populations
The IUCN says the lake char is a "least concern" species. This means it's not currently in danger of disappearing. However, in the past, the fish faced big problems.
Starting in the 1950s, many lakes in the Subalpine region became polluted. This pollution, called eutrophication, got very bad by 1979. It caused the number of Salvelinus umbla fish to drop sharply. For example, the lake char completely disappeared from lakes like Mondsee. Other char species, like Salvelinus profundus, even became extinct during this time. Luckily, most lake char populations are now slowly getting better.
Lake Char in Sweden
The name Salvelinus umbla has also been used for char populations in central Sweden. There, they are called storröding, which means "large char." This helps tell them apart from the northern fjällröding, which is Salvelinus alpinus. However, the Swedish storröding are not thought to be related to the Central European lake char. Instead, the storröding from Lake Sommen and Lake Vättern are closely related to char found in Lake Ladoga in Russia.
