Kids see weird wetland beasts on the brink up close at Slimbridge
School kids visiting WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre this week have been getting up close to two of Britain’s weirdest and most endangered wetland creatures for the first time thanks to players of the People’s Postcode Lottery.
Pupils from Slimbridge School enjoyed their first glimpses of the lobster-like white-clawed crayfish, which hides under rocks and emerges to feast on snails and bugs, and the snake-like European eel, which migrates from the mysterious Sargasso Sea to the River Severn, even swimming out of the water and across land when necessary.
Both creatures were once common across the South West, but have been pushed to the brink of extinction in recent decades.
WWT has used part of a £200,000 donation from the players of the People’s Postcode Lottery to bring both species to their Slimbridge Wetland Centre.
Visitors can see and read about them at Slimbridge’s Back from the Brink area, which is home to other endangered and extinct creatures that were once common on the River Severn such as beaver, water shrews, cranes and otters.
WWT’s Jay Redbond said:
“Slimbridge is best known for birds but wetlands support a huge diversity of wildlife. The crayfish and the eel are two of the more unusual wetland creatures. Both are fascinating and sadly in dire need of help, so when we heard the players of the People’s Postcode Lottery were going to support us, we took the chance to bring them and their stories to our visitors at Slimbridge. All has gone well with moving them into their new homes and I’m pleased to say that everyone is loving the chance to see them up close.”
White-clawed crayfish are a sign of a healthy wetland environment because they favour clean water, but they are being killed off by larger American signal crayfish, which were introduced to the UK in the 1970s and spread a deadly plague. The white-clawed crayfish have been given to WWT Slimbridge by Bristol Zoo as part of the South West Crayfish Partnership and it is hoped they will breed and help support reintroduction programmes in the region.
European eels spend most of their mysterious lives in marshy wetlands in the UK before swimming thousands of miles across the ocean to the Sargasso Sea to spawn and die. The Severn is famous for its elvers (young eels), which were once exported around the world in large numbers. Slimbridge’s eels have been donated by and are being reared in association with the Sustainable Eel Group, which rears tens of thousands of eels for release into the wild.
