National Park Service Featured Creature U.S. Department of the Interior February 2021 Klamath Network Inventory & Monitoring Division Natural Resources Stewardship & Science Sculpins Cottidae

General Description Habitat and Distribution Darting low through tide pools or lurking Sculpins occur in both marine and freshwater in stream bottoms, members of the large habitats of North America, Europe, and Asia, fish family, Cottidae, are commonly called with just a few marine species in the southern USFWS/ROGER TABOR sculpins. They also go by “bullhead” or “sea hemisphere. Most abundant in the North Prickly sculpin (Cottus asper) scorpion,” and even some very unflattering Pacific, they tend to frequent shallow water terms, like “double uglies.” You’re not likely and tide pools. In North American coldwa- to catch one on your fishing line, but if you ter streams, they overlap the same habitat as them to keep them oxygenated until they look carefully into ocean tide pools, you trout and salmon, including small headwater hatch a few weeks later into baby fish, known may spot these well camouflaged creatures streams, lakes, and rocky areas of lowland as fry. The fry will be sexually mature in time moving around the bottom. Most of the more rivers. Freshwater sculpin are sometimes the for the next breeding season. than 250–300 known species in this family are only abundant fish species in streams. Inland marine, though some live in freshwater. species found in Pacific Northwest streams Fun Facts include the riffle sculpin (Cottus gulosus), • Some sculpins are able to compress their Generally, sculpins are bottom-dwelling prickly sculpin (Cottus asper), and coastrange skull bones to fit inside small spaces. small fish, under 13–15 cm (5–6 in) long, sculpin (Cottus aleuticus). Pacific staghorn • Despite the unflattering names given to with large heads and sizable fanlike pectoral sculpin (Leptocottus armatus) occur in estu- sculpin by some people, at least one beer fins. A marine sculpin called the cabezon aries along the Pacific coast. label sports a sculpin-like image and title! (Scorpaenichthys marmoratus) is an excep- • Sculpins differ from many other bony fishes tion, measuring up to 99 cm (39 in) long! Diet and Behavior because they lack a swim bladder. A swim Sculpins often lack body scales, instead Freshwater sculpins typically spend the day bladder is a gas-filled sack that a fish can sporting modified scales in the form of bony hiding under streambed objects and the expand or deflate to control its buoyancy in plates, prickles, and spines. The shape and ray night feeding on small invertebrates, espe- the water column. Lack of a swim bladder fits sharpness of the lower edge of their pectoral cially aquatic insect larvae. They eat small the sculpin’s bottom-dwelling habits. fins can vary by species, presumably based crustaceans and worms, as well, and their big on how tightly they need to grip the substrate. mouths can fit an occasional fish. In upstream Where to See Sculpins look very prickly and their spines habitats sculpin may eat salmonid eggs. Freshwater sculpins occur in Whiskeytown can pierce unwary hands! They are well NRA, Lassen Volcanic NP, and Redwood camouflaged, with mottled, muted colors that Some sculpins, like the tidepool sculpin NSP. Tide pool and estuary sculpins occur match the habitat in which they lurk. Some (Oligocottus maculosus), share an unusual in Redwood NSP. Although sculpins don’t sculpin have moderate ability to change their ability with other fish around the world that presently occur in Crater Lake NP, a recent color to match a new environment. They are regularly find themselves in low oxygen con- stream restoration project for the bull trout very difficult to identify in the hand without a ditions. They can breathe air! Low oxygen can (Salvelinus confluentus) led slender sculpin microscope, and as a result, many more spe- occur in tide pools at night when plants have (Cottus tenuis) to expand their range by cies may exist than have been named. One US stopped photosynthesizing, or when low tide several kilometers upstream towards the park Forest Service research project, Sculpins of drains the pool of water. In general, amphibi- boundary—an expansion that may eventually the West, is tackling this challenge by solicit- ous fish breathe air either through their gills reach into the park. ing sculpin DNA samples. (which are typically larger and thicker than purely aquatic species) or through their skin, Learn More which is called cutaneous respiration. https://annebeaudreau.com/2017/09/05/ why-i-love-sculpins/ Reproduction Spring is spawning time for many, though not https://www.nwf.org/Magazines/ all, freshwater sculpins. After courtship with National-Wildlife/1994/Fish-Out-of-Water a territorial male, the female typically sticks around just long enough to lay her eggs in the Klamath Network nest (often a depression under a rock) that Southern Oregon University the male created, and then she leaves. The 1250 Siskiyou Blvd

NPS/DAVE HERING NPS/DAVE Ashland, OR 97520 male guards and cares for the eggs, fanning Sculpin from the Oregon coast range THIS EDITION PREPARED BY SONYA DAW EXPERIENCE YOUR AMERICA™