salmon, n.Trivia

Salmon change their color and bodily features on their way from the ocean to the freshwater habitats during the mating season.

Atlantic salmon can smell one drop of scent in an area the equivalent of ten Olympic size pools!

Salmon navigate by using the Earth’s magnetic field like a compass to return to the river they were born in years after leaving it

Salmon fossils show salmon to be more than 50 million years old as a species

Chinook salmon have traveled as far as 3,845 km (2,389 miles) upstream to spawn.

Salmon, when swimming upstream, can jump two yards into the air.

Trees near rivers with salmon grow three times faster than trees without them due to bears leaving carcasses around to decompose

Salmon live 4-5 years, but can live up to 7 years.

Salmon change color to attract a spawning mate

Salmon die as a result of exhaustion after spawning. (a small percent of survived salmons will spawn few more time in their lifetime).

Salmon come back to the stream where they were ‘born’ because they ‘know’ it is a good place to spawn

Chinook salmon make up 80% of the summer diet of killer whales in the Pacific Northwest,

Salmon have between 1500 and 10,000 eggs but, on average, two adults per spawning pair are produced

Salmon are considered “anadromous” which means they live in both fresh and salt water.

Salmon, after living for many years at sea, travel a long distance home to return to the river in which they were born to spawn.

Salmon change colour

Salmon are a 'keystone species', meaning if they were to disappear, their ecosystems would change significantly. Rotting salmon carcasses transfer valuable nutrients to mosses, herbs, shrubs, trees, insects, song birds, bears and wolves.

Atlantic salmon are capable of leaping 15 feet high