\n The children were playing at the stepping stones in the river, also known as the River Tame Crossing.\n<\/p>\n
\n Located just off Uppermill Park, it’s a popular spot along hiking routes in the area.\n<\/p>\n
\n While they were there, the eagle-eyed youngsters spotted an American signal crayfish crawling from between the stones in the river.\n<\/p>\n
\n The crustacean can be identified by the distinctive white\/turquoise patch at the hinge of its claws, which were sticking out from the water.\n<\/p>\n
\n It is the third time this year that a sighting of the species has been reported, with one found in the Huddersfield Canal in April, and one spotted in the River Beal in September.\n<\/p>\n
\n Now, the Mersey River Trust has confirmed it is aware of the creature’s presence, and is actively taking action to tackle it.\n<\/p>\n
\n The American signal crayfish is considered dangerous to its environment, causing harm to local food chains, species and river banks.\n<\/p>\n
\n The creatures actively hunt their cousins and the native species in the UK, the white clawed crayfish, which is much smaller and more docile.\n<\/p>\n
\n A spokesperson for the Mersey River Trust said: “We are aware of the American signal crayfish in the River Tame, which is an invasive, non-native species from North America that was introduced to the UK in the 1970s.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt outcompetes and spreads crayfish plague, which devastates the native, white-clawed crayfish, and its burrowing activities can cause significant erosion to riverbanks.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cDistinguishing features include its larger size and red undersides claws with a distinctive turquoise\/white blotch at the hinge.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cSignal Crayfish can breed and multiply quickly and cause extensive damage to banks through burrowing.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThey reduce overall water quality and eat almost anything, from aquatic plants to small invertebrates, fish, frogs and even each other.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe are currently working in partnership with the Environment Agency and United Utilities to help protect a small population of native white clawed crayfish within the Saddleworth catchment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The children were playing at the stepping stones in the river, also known as the River Tame Crossing.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-208234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}