BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) \u2014 It was an amazing sight \u2014 crawdads coming out of the Kern River bed and venturing into parking lots and streets along the Truxtun Extension.<\/p>\n
The mini-migration, if you will, was due to the heavy rainfall we\u2019ve been seeing. But are these animals native to Bakersfield, and what made them come out of hiding?<\/p>\n
Crawdads, or Crayfish, were seen all around Bakersfield on Monday. According to one resident, they\u2019ve been here for decades.<\/p>\n
RELATED: Major storm brings out unusual visitors to Bakersfield <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSo back in the \u201970s when I was a kid, I was probably about 7, 6-7 years old. I would go to Hart Park and catch all these crawdads and make some scampi out of it,\u201d said Chris Torrez, who grew up in Bakersfield.<\/p>\n Torrez said as a child, he caught crawdads for his grandpa to have a family meal.<\/p>\n \u201cLike shrimp scampi but it would be crawdad scampi. It was really good because it was just butter, garlic, a little bit of wine. It tasted so good, they\u2019re really delicious,\u201d said Torrez.<\/p>\n The Monday crawdad invasion of Truxtun Avenue near the river brought fond memories back for Torrez.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d use like a line with a hook and some bologna and just put it in there and wait till they grab a hold of it and then pull \u2019em up,\u201d said Torrez. \u201cYou gotta do it real carefully, otherwise they\u2019ll take off.\u201d<\/p>\n But these mudbugs aren\u2019t actually native to Kern County.<\/p>\n They are considered an invasive species, according to Rae McNeish, a professor of biology at Cal State Bakersfield who has studied the Kern River for years.<\/p>\n \u201cCrayfish can get quite large. The one species that is likely what it is, is commonly called the red swamp crayfish,\u201d said McNeish.<\/p>\n The Kern River provides a perfect environment for them to thrive.<\/p>\n \u201c(The) invasive crayfish is the only one I\u2019ve seen in the Kern River, and I think it only persists because it\u2019s good adapted for slow moving warm waters which is what we have here,\u201d said McNeish.<\/p>\n