{"id":777983,"date":"2026-07-22T14:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/777983\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T14:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:16:11","slug":"meet-the-lobster-like-crustaceans-invading-the-chicago-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/777983\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the lobster-like crustaceans invading the Chicago River"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                                    <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wbez.org\/curious-city\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784729771_637_.jpeg\"  width=\"300\" height=\"63\"\/><\/p>\n<p>    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n                                                    WBEZ\u2019s Curious City answers questions from listeners about Chicago and the region. We include the public in our storytelling, making journalism more transparent and interconnected.\n                                                <\/p>\n<p>Editor\u2019s Note: This story first published in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve ever kayaked down the Chicago River or relaxed along any of the waterways in the area, you may have encountered all sorts of creatures \u2014 an <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wbez.org\/stories\/chonkosaurus-snapping-turtles-are-common-in-chicago\/c46fda51-6d96-425f-9b6b-4a346550d589\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">enormous snapping turtle<\/a>, a stray alligator or maybe something that looks a lot like a lobster.<\/p>\n<p>A lobster living in Chicago water would be impossible. After all, they thrive in salt water and would not be able to survive in fresh water. But a Curious City listener swears she\u2019s seen something lobster-like swimming around the city. So if it wasn\u2019t a lobster, what did the listener see?<\/p>\n<p>To find out, Curious City got on a boat with some scientists in search of this mystery crustacean.<\/p>\n<p>It turns out the creature the listener saw was a red swamp crayfish, and its presence in Chicago waterways is a warning sign. Read more about the red swamp crayfish <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wbez.org\/curious-city\/2023\/08\/10\/are-there-lobsters-in-the-chicago-river\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">here<\/a> or press play to listen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WBEZ\u2019s Curious City answers questions from listeners about Chicago and the region. We include the public in our&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-777983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}