Seven populations of golden trout (Salmo aguabonita Jordan) from the Sierra Nevada, California, and four populations of rainbow trout (Salmo qairdneri Richardson) from California and Mexico, were compared for differences in ten meristic characters. Six of the golden trout populations were also examined for differences in chromosome karyotype. The results indicate that at least three, possibly four, phenetically distinct forms of golden-like trout now inhabit the region of the southern Sierra Nevada thought to circumscribe the endemic range of S. aguabonita. Based on phenetic distance estimates between pairs of the eleven populations of trout, and the karyotypes of the six golden trout populations examined, two of the golden trout populations sampled from the Little Kern River basin were suspected of having a recent hybrid origin resultant from crossing of introduced rainbow trout and native Little Kern golden trout, S. a. whitei Evermann. Two other golden trout populations sampled from the Lrttie Kern River basin were tentatively identified as "pure" S. a. whitei.
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