Jack
Jacks back, yes that's what they say ... and do you know why?
It's because we know our way back ... back to where we were born, like salmon except we don't like the ocean quite as much. Although given the opportunity we'll drop into the ocean for a feed when we need to, but as a rule we mainly stick to freshwater streams and lakes.
We're originally from the United States and Canada area. We were taken to other countries mainly due to the fact that we taste good. Which I have to say is not always the best attribute to have ...
But I like New Zealand and consider myself a kiwi now, well you know what I mean ... as kiwis have feathers and dig around looking for bugs at night and I have scales and swim around looking for bugs by day, I'm a kiwi in the sense that I live here and love it here. My family have been here since the mid 1800s so I call New Zealand home now ... but back to what I do here at Rainbow Springs. I'm all about my memory, I can remember things, so that's how I'm going to help you as you get around our site.
This is because we know our way around, some say our amazing sense of direction is tied into the magnetic forces that run through the planet, I can't say as that would be telling, and this brings us back to tasting good. It's not in my best interest to tell you too much about myself.
But I'll tell you a bit. We live mostly in cool, deep mountain streams. We're carnivores, which means like you humans, we like meat. Our diet is mostly bugs and insects that live or land on the water, but we will eat smaller fish or crustaceans as well (freshwater crays, etc). We're not endangered, in fact some countries consider us pests so hopefully we're not thought of like that here.
We grow to about 50-70cm long, we're shaped like torpedo's. That's because we swim fast and like to 'catch' our prey. We'll sit quite still in deeper darker areas of a stream or river and then pounce on our prey when it lands on the water surface or appears from a crevace at the bottom. This is how those fishermen catch us, mimicking bugs that land on the water.
Did you know the largest trout ever recorded was around 25kg's, that's 25 1kg bags of sugar, he was about 11 years old. But if you can pick up 2 10kg bags of potatoes next time you're at the supermarket you'll see that's a pretty impressive sized fresh water fish.
And don't listen to anything that ancient lizard says about me, we can hold our own in the water, we don't quite live as long, normally about 8-10 years, but that old dinosaur doesn't know any more than we do. And no matter what he says I could beat him in a 100m sprint anyday.
Catch you round the site, remember I said 'catch you round', I don't want you to catch me ... anytime soon.
Check out Jenny or Bugsy next.