A DURHAM ecologist has spoken of the dangers presented to the UK's native crayfish from a US invader.
Damian Bubb, an ecologist with the University of Dur-ham spoke at the British Ecological Society's winter meeting at the University of York yesterday about the invasion of the US signal crayfish.
Mr Bubb, conducting research for a PhD, reported how he used radio tagging to track the rate at which US crayfish have been spreading through North Yorkshire's rivers.
He explained how the US invader out-competes the UK's native white clawed crayfish by being bigger, faster-growing, giving birth to more young and carrying a plague deadly to the UK's crayfish.
The meeting also heard from other speakers about an important new method for accurately assessing native crayfish numbers in the UK, commissioned by the Life in UK Rivers project, which will form the basis of a new database as part of an effort to conserve native crayfish.
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