PORTAGE, Wis. (AP) -- The state Department of Natural Resources is studying sturgeon in the Lower Wisconsin River.

Michael Rennicke, a DNR fisheries technician at Poynette, says little about them in that area is now known.

So he says the agency has surgically implanted radio-transmitters in 16 adult sturgeon, and hopes to follow those fish for six years if funding allows.

Sturgeon are a slow-growing, long-lived species. Females begin spawning about the time they reach 50 inches and 24-26 years of age, after which they spawn every four to six years. Rennicke says males mature around 20 years of age and, while some spawn every year, most spawn every other year.

Wisconsin has the largest inland sturgeon population in the nation.