Editing Chain pickerel (section)

==Diet==
[[File:Chain pickerel mouth.png|thumb|right|The roof of a chain pickerel's mouth, showing several rows of angled, sharp teeth.]]
Like the northern pike, the chain pickerel feeds primarily on smaller fish, until it grows large enough to ambush large fish from cover with a rapid lunge and to secure it with its sharp teeth. Chain pickerel are also known to eat frogs, snakes,<ref name=ADorg>{{cite web |url=https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Esox_niger/ |title = ''Esox niger'' Pickerel|website=Animal Diversity Web|last=Shelburne|first=Jacob|archive-date=8 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221008020620/https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Esox_niger/|url-status=live|editor-last1=Powers|editor-first1=Karen|editor-last2=Atwood|editor-first2=Alex|editor-last3=Dameron|editor-first3=Marisa|editor-last4=Hammond|editor-first4=George|year=2017}}</ref> worms, mice, other small mammals,<ref name=ADorg /> crayfish, insects,<ref name=ADorg/> and a wide variety of other foods.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sternberg|first=Dick|title=Freshwater Gamefish of North America|year=1987|publisher=Cy DeCosse Incorporated|isbn=0-86573-023-7}}</ref> It is not unusual for pickerel to leap out of the water at flying insects, or even at dangling fishing lures.{{Cn|date=February 2021}} Raney (1942) studied chain pickerel in a New York pond and found that [[golden shiner]]s were found in the stomachs of 47.3% of the 234 chain pickerel examined. [[Brown bullhead]]s were found in 13.8%, and [[pumpkinseed]] sunfish were found in 13.2%. Crayfish of the genus ''[[Cambarus]]'' were present in 42% of the chain pickerel.<ref name=ADorg /><ref>{{cite journal |title=The Summer Food and Habits of the Chain Pickerel (''Esox niger'') of a Small New York Pond|last=Raney|first=Edward C.|journal=The Journal of Wildlife Management|volume=6|issue=1|year=1942|pages=58–66|jstor=3795522|doi=10.2307/3795522}}</ref>