Red swamp crayfish

The red swamp crayfish is a small freshwater crayfish — some people call it a crawdad or a mudbug. It looks a little like a tiny lobster, with a dark red shell and two big front claws. Rows of bright red bumps run along its claws and front legs, so up close it seems to sparkle. The boys grow the biggest, chunkiest claws of all.

This crayfish comes from the warm, watery corners of northern Mexico and the southern United States. It feels right at home in slow rivers, marshes, ponds, and even the flooded fields where rice is grown. It is one of the toughest crayfish there is, happy in warm water, muddy water, and water that is only there for part of the year.

Being so hardy, the red swamp crayfish is a real little survivor. On damp nights it can crawl right across the land to find a new pool, and when the water dries up it simply digs a cosy burrow and waits — sometimes for as long as four months — until the rains return. Not many pond animals can do that.

At mealtimes it is not fussy at all. A red swamp crayfish nibbles water plants and algae, snacks on snails and insects, and tidies up dead leaves that sink to the bottom. By munching all this fallen food, it helps keep its pond clean and passes that energy along to the fish and birds that feed on crayfish.

Over the years, people have carried this crayfish far from home, and now it lives in ponds and rivers across parts of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. In these new waters it can crowd out other crayfish, so scientists gently keep watch on where it settles. Its conservation status is Least Concern, meaning there are plenty of these bright red crawdads doing just fine.