White-clawed Crayfish are the UK's only native crayfish and sadly, like our Red Squirrel they are threatened by an American import - the Signal Crayfish. The Signal Crayfish, just like Grey Squirrels carry a disease which is deadly to our native crayfish. Fortunately the population at Wallington is healthy at the moment, and are cared for by the rangers.

Crayfish resemble lobsters, but are much smaller (6-12cm long) and only live in fresh water. They live for 8-12 years, they are omnivores and swim backwards! The 'white-clawed' refers to the white underside of their claws.

Because White-clawed Crayfish are a protected species, you need a licence to handle them - I took the photos above and below at an extremely interesting talk given by the wildlife rangers who look after and survey the crayfish at Wallington.

I have looked for a White-clawed Crayfish in the river many times, but only recently (with a little help) did I finally see some in their natural environment. As you can see from the photos below, they blend in quite well with the river bed, and unless the water is calm, it will be very difficult to make them out