Alien Species Invading The British Isles
“An armor-plated alien invader is eating its way through wildlife in Britain’s waterways”
So reads The Daily Telegraph this week. Who said that environmental journalism can be dull?
The invader in question is the American Signal Crayfish (pictured), described as a six inch long killing machine and voracious predator that has already annihilated the native White Claw species, and now threatens to completely overwhelm many fragile aquatic eco-systems.
The problems started during the 1970’s when Signal crayfish bread in farms for the restaurant trade managed to escape. So successful have they been, with their lack of natural predators, rapid breeding rate, and willingness to eat absolutely everything including plants, insects, fish, snails, detritus and their own young, that they have quickly grown into an aquatic army of almost plague proportions.
