Walking Crawfish

This wandering crawfish is missing its left claw.
A mom with her stroller stops to watch the crawfish saunter across the path.

It has rained the past two weekends. After a rainfall the Wetlands’ crawfish get up and have a walkabout. I’m not quite sure what the reason is for these expeditions, although I believe it to be a search for new areas to colonize by the crawfish.

Since their gills need to stay wet in order to function (The gills are at the base of the walking legs) the animals can walk around in the wet grass following the rain as long as the gills remain moist.

The crawfish are always looked at with surprise and delight by passersby, many are quite large.

Crawfish can sometimes be seen in the shallow water alongside the Wetlands Overlook. Lately, many have been congregating on the south side of the Wetlands. You can see them in the water as you walk up or down the boardwalk by peeking over the south side of the railing.

There are at least 4 crawfish in the image, possibly a fifth (the two objects in the center are pine cones).

Good luck!

2 responses to Walking Crawfish

  1. kimberly says:

    There have been huge crawfish in the bear pool filter lately

    • Greg Dodge says:

      Are you finding them a day or two after a rain event?
      What do you do with the ones found in the filter?
      Thanks,

Leave a Reply to kimberlyCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.