The Bonneville cutthroat, native to the Bear River, are highly adaptable and can withstand a severe stream environment Ñ where streams are turbid and carry a heavy silt load.

Adult cutthroat prefer to eat other fish but will readily feed on invertebrates. They like to eat sculpins and whitefish and whitefish eggs.

Cutthroat mature slowly and many do not reach maturity until age five but some may not spawn until they are over 10 years old. Mature fish average about 22 inches and weigh about four and a half pounds. Males and females are about the same size.

The female cutthroat builds a nest with her tail in a gravel bed and then deposits here eggs. Egg numbers run from just a few hundred to over 8,000. The male fertilizes the eggs and then stands guard while the female moves upstream to cover them with gravel.

The eggs, covered with as much as five to seven inches of gravel hatch in between 30 or 40 days.

Cutthroats are an aggressive fish and are fairly easy to catch. This makes it necessary to have special regulations on many waters to protect the fish until they grow big enough and old enough to spawn.