It changes colour dramatically, from silver to deep red, as it nears the end of its life on the spawning migration, after which it dies.
From Sockeye Salmon
It returns to spawn in the very stretch of river where it hatched, navigating first by the Earth's magnetic field in the open sea and then by smell, which lets it recognise the chemical signature of its natal stream.
From Sockeye Salmon
It is semelparous: it breeds once and dies. The carcasses bring the river nutrients of marine origin that feed bears, birds and the riverside forest itself.
From Sockeye Salmon
It can leap waterfalls up to 4.5 metres high on its migration upriver.
From Salmon
A female can lay between 1,300 and 2,000 eggs per kilo of body weight.
From Salmon
It migrates between fresh-water rivers, where it hatches and breeds, and the North Atlantic, where it feeds.
From Salmon
It returns to the exact stream where it hatched by smell: as a fry it memorises the chemical signature of its river and recognises it years later after thousands of kilometres in the open sea.
From Coho Salmon
It is semelparous: it spawns once and then dies, and its carcasses bring riverside forests an enormous quantity of nitrogen and phosphorus of oceanic origin.
From Coho Salmon

Ecosystems