EarthTimes
Antananarivo, Madagascar - Alarm is mounting on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar over an invasion of voracious self-cloning crayfish, which are gobbling their way through rice paddies and threatening endemic crayfish species.The marbled crayfish, or marmorkrebs, is colour mottled brown-green with light and dark spots and can grow up to 10 centimetres in length.It is not clear how or when the shrimp-like crustacean, which is believed to originate in North America, came to this vast island, which lies 400 kilometres off the coast of Mozambique.Experts believe it arrived via Europe, where German scientists already warned in 2003 about the proliferation of the crayfish as aquarium fish.Professor Olga Ramilijaona, a biologist at the capital's Universite d'Antananarivo, said the first specimens were discovered in a rice paddy near the capital in 2003.
Read more
