{"id":238739,"date":"2025-11-02T01:01:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T01:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/238739\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T01:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T01:01:12","slug":"pennine-volunteers-sought-for-white-clawed-crayfish-tests-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/238739\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennine volunteers sought for white-clawed crayfish tests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Samantha JaggerNorth East and Cumbria<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761431770_428_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/29bf8980-b58d-11f0-84a5-1545866a5354.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"John Stock\/Eden Rivers Trust A white-clawed crayfish sits on a rock in the water. It has bright red antenna and red tips on its claws. \" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>John Stock\/Eden Rivers Trust<\/p>\n<p>The white-clawed crayfish used to be common but is now endangered<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Volunteers are being asked to help test water for the presence of water voles, mink and critically endangered white-clawed crayfish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The Eden Rivers Trust said it was looking to find &#8220;safe havens&#8221;, where crayfish in particular &#8220;might still thrive, free from invasive species&#8221;, in the North Pennines fellsides.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Tests involve sending samples containing blood, poo, fur or skin cells to a laboratory to be analysed, with the aim of identifying all the species in a stretch of water.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The trust said the Eden catchment in Cumbria was &#8220;one of its last strongholds for white-clawed crayfish in England, but populations were rapidly declining due to water pollution and the invasive American signal crayfish&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The trust said the method of sampling, known as eDNA, did not disturb the habitat as much as traditional survey methods and was more cost-effective and quicker when sampling large areas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Stephen Henderson, habitat and species manager at Eden Rivers Trust, said the processed involved &#8220;scooping water into a bag, shaking it to mix the DNA, then using a syringe to push it into a tube containing a filter&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;That filter captures DNA, which we send off for analysis. If white-clawed crayfish DNA is present, it suggests a population may be nearby,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761431770_428_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/243e0f00-b5aa-11f0-8d0f-29cad3ef1e0e.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"PA Media A brown furry water vole sits on a plastic tube. The vole has large whiskers and has typical rodent features.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>PA Media<\/p>\n<p>The trust said it wanted to determine the presence of water voles too<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The white-clawed crayfish used to be common but have lost out to the larger, more aggressive American signal crayfish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">It was introduced for food in the late 1970s and 1980s, and carries a plague which affects only the white-clawed species.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The trust asked people interested in doing the surveys to get in touch, adding that the programme was almost filled for autumn but would open again in the spring. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;Dates and times will depend on a variety of factors, including weather and the availability of staff and volunteers,&#8221; the trust added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Samantha JaggerNorth East and Cumbria John Stock\/Eden Rivers Trust The white-clawed crayfish used to be common but is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-238739","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\/238739","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=238739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}