\n The woman was walking near Diglis Hotel at night when she spotted the crustacean moving along the riverbank.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It scared the life out of us, running across the steps. Even the swans were scared,” she said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Wildlife experts believe it may be a non-native Chinese mitten crab or a crab someone has brought back from the seaside and dumped in the river Severn.\n<\/p>\n
\n The woman struggled to get a clear photo because it was nighttime and the speed at which it was moving.\n<\/p>\n
\n A spokesperson for Worcestershire Wildlife Trust said: “It is difficult to identify the crab from the photo, but it may well be a non-native Chinese mitten crab, as native crabs only survive in saltwater.\n<\/p>\n
\n INVADED: Could a Chinese mitten crab be lurking beneath the waters of the river Severn in Worcester? (Image: \u00a9 Copyright Philip Halling and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence)\n<\/p>\n
\n “Of course, we can’t rule out the possibility that a coastal crab has been brought back from someone’s holiday or released from a collection.\n<\/p>\n
\n “If it is a Chinese mitten crab, this isn’t good news, as they not only have a voracious appetite for both plants and animals, but their extensive burrows cause immense damage to river banks.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Importantly, though, they cannot breed in freshwater, so should be unable to build up a self-sustaining population this far inland.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Mitten crabs have been spotted in numerous locations in the UK, including Cambridgeshire and along the River Thames.\n<\/p>\n
\n CLOSE-UP: The blurry image was taken by a woman walking along the River Severn at night (Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n
\n A spokesperson for the Canal and River Trust said: “If it was truly a crab seen, then, given the freshwater location, the Chinese Mitten Crab is the only species known in the UK that lives in freshwater.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Chinese mitten crabs are an invasive non-native and have been recorded lower down in the Severn Estuary, but have not been recorded in the Severn as high as Worcester.\n<\/p>\n
\n “If it were a case of mistaken identity and not a crab that was seen, it could have been a signal crayfish, which looks similar to a small lobster.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Signal crayfish are another invasive non-native species, but are more widespread than the Chinese mitten crab.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The woman was walking near Diglis Hotel at night when she spotted the crustacean moving along the riverbank.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-257621","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\/257621","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=257621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}