Fauna of Eastern Siberia. Taimen

It is unreasonable to live a man. Against all logic. Scientists say that every month the world becomes poorer by one or even two kinds of insects and animals. A person continues to destroy them. I want to write about the taimen and remember the stories about a successful hunt for this fish. That is - hunting. Are they hunted for the tiger and the elk? Undoubtedly. Taimen is also called the moose and the tiger. Only river.
This power and beauty of Trans-Baikal rivers for a long time has stained the minds of all anglers. But why catch taimen? Making the world and yourself poorer? Catch and fry a 30-year-old taimen? To cause irreparable damage to nature and the population - is it not a crime?
Think: taimen is considered mature only in the seventh year of life. And live from 40 to 50 years. You represent a fish, whose age is equal to the age of a person! Individuals live almost 60 years. And weight? If the taimen at 7 years weighs from one and half to two kilograms, how much can it weigh in 30 years? Approximately the same, that is, a kilogram of 30, and should weigh. But he can weigh 50 and 60 kilograms at this age.
Spawning taimeni occurs in early spring. The river has moved and is moving into the upper reaches and the taimen. The female is looking for pebble soil, rocky bottom. It can have up to 30 or even more than thousands of eggs. The incubation period is up to one and a half months. But as soon as the taimen returns, it immediately leaves for the lower reaches, and in autumn - for large lakes and rivers.
They often ask: what does the taimen eat? And what can a freshwater predator eat? Young plants get - a crustacean, larvae of caddis flies and mosquitoes, insects flying over the water. But since two years the taimen already eats small fish. Predator he becomes four years old. He catches any fish that lives in our rivers. This can be grayling, minnow, whitefish, horse-fish, crucian carp. Prey can be chicks of a waterfowl, a frog, a mouse. Is it not enough who can get caught by a predator?
Our river tiger has a forward, long body. It seems low, that is flat, because of a wide back. The head is flattened on the sides and takes a quarter of the total body length. Teeth with a continuous strip. Color taimen is dark, on the sides there are black cross-shaped spots. The main distinguishing feature of the taimen is the rear fin and tail bright red.
Transbaikalian rivers are an ideal place for such a predator, who loves a fast and cold current. Cold water is one of the conditions for staying in taimen. Therefore, he is looking for pits, and when the temperature becomes warmer, he looks for places from where springs and tributaries hit, where there can be cold water. A large taimen, often a loner, young people are getting into flocks by several individuals.
For some reason, there is an opinion that the Mongolian peoples do not eat fish. This is probably due to Buddhist parables. In fact, taimen is the most "Mongolian" fish that has been feeding people since ancient times. Taimena caught a teenager and in his youth, Genghis Khan. Countless times told a legend according to which the nomads, having found a huge taimen frozen in the ice, ate his meat all winter long, and in the spring the fish thawed and swam away.
Science claims that taimen is the largest representative of the salmon family. If all other salmon are very "young" - appeared 2 or 3 million years ago, then the taimen is "older" by 15 million years. It is also scientifically confirmed that our taimen reaches up to 2 meters in length, and weights up to 90 kilograms.
I can be trusted: I'm not a fisherman, but a part of nature.
It is difficult to realize that the taimen can disappear, but there is a small hope - it is listed in the International Red Book, the category - "vulnerable", and also in the Red Book of the Trans-Baikal Territory. Will it save him?