Rare crayfish released into rivers to safeguard future
ENDANGERED crayfish bred by Bristol conservationists have been secretly released into secure rivers to help safeguard their future after many were killed off by an American ‘plague’.
More than 200 white-clawed crayfish have been released at multiple sites in Somerset and Hampshire as part of an effort to boost their dwindling numbers.
While white-clawed crayfish are Britain’s native freshwater breed, they have been increasingly put at risk by diseased invasive American signal crayfish.
Carrying a deadly fungal ‘crayfish plague’, American signal crayfish outcompete and kill off our white clawed breed – leaving them endangered.
American signal crayfish also increase the chance of river flooding and cause erosion along British rivers, decimating invertibrate and fish populations.
Bristol Zoo Gardens therefore took up the initiative to save the species, breeding hundreds of crayfish a year in effort to boost their numbers.
Bristol Zoological Society, the conservation and education charity that runs Bristol Zoo Gardens and Wild Place Project, have bred thousands of the crayfish in recent years.
Dr Jen Nightingale, UK Conservation Manager with Bristol Zoological Society, leads the South West Crayfish Partnership.
She said: “We are building up populations using captive-born crayfish in the hope that we will prevent them becoming extinct. Numbers are in decline and, without projects like this, white-clawed crayfish could disappear from southwest England in the next 10 years.”
The crayfish have been released ready for the start of the breeding season, with thousands now having been deposited across the country.
Research into population control methods by universities across Europe is also being undertaken to curb the reproduction of invasive American signal crayfish.
While Dr Nightingale explained that signal crayfish are “so pervasive” that controlling their numbers would be a long-term job, efforts to save European species are continuing.