More common then we may realize - Burrowing Crayfish change the environment to suit their needs

Type: Interesting

Description:
We usually think of crayfish creeping along in streams and ponds but their are many that live quite a distance from running or standing water and build large burrows that reach below the water table. Crayfish are crustaceans that are actually more closely related to lobsters and come by many names including mudbugs, crawdads, rawfish, craydids, crawdaddies, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, rock lobsters, baybugs or yabbies! These crayfish may have a greater impact on the environment then ecologists realized. Detritiovere, opportunistic Crayfish turn over decaying biomass in a nutrittious useable form and our preyed on by many different organisms up the food chain. Crayfish identification is very difficult. There are many invasive crayfish that our out competing our natives often introduced to ponds, rivers and streams inadvertently from fishermans' bait buckets.

Keywords:

Video length: 07:50