The Fur-Bearing Trout
In the icy lakes of the northern Rockies, the story goes, the water is so cold that the trout have grown fur coats.
What was reported
The fur-bearing trout is a creature of North American tall tales, said to live in the cold lakes and rivers of Montana, Colorado and Canada. Its thick coat of fur keeps it warm in the freezing water. Tourist postcards from the 1930s and stuffed specimens in shops and museums seemed to prove it.
An earlier version is Scottish: a 17th-century story told of furry fish in the cold waters of Iceland and Scotland, and a stuffed 'furred trout' is kept in the National Museum of Scotland.
Explanations offered
The specimens are taxidermy hoaxes, made by gluing rabbit or other fur onto a fish. Fish do sometimes look fuzzy when infected by a type of water mould, which may have started some stories.
- When
- Told since the 1600s; postcards from the 1930s
- Where
- Montana, USA
- Witnesses
- Anglers' tall tales and taxidermists
- Status
- Hoax
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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