Sucker Migration
Channel: Shedd Aquarium
Date: 2022-05-06

We’re suckers for suckers!   

Back at it with #FreshWaterFridays! Starting late March and continuing through May, hundreds of thousands of white and longnose suckers migrate from the Great Lakes to their spawning streams—a massive migration in our backyard!  

Suckers are important all year round, but in the spring their role in the streams and rivers they visit is incredible! Shedd’s Dr. Karen Murchie says,  “When the suckers migrate from the various Great Lakes into creeks and rivers to spawn, their reproduction means the population can be sustained.  While they are in the creeks, they are adding a buffet of nutrients that get used by the plant matter and aquatic insects. Where the suckers have been the aquatic insects get bigger and that means a tastier treat for another fish, and if the insect larvae don’t get eaten by fish they hatch and become food for birds and bats. So if you love fish, birds and bats – thank a sucker.”