Top 10 endangered species at Bristol Zoo

November – White-clawed crayfish – Austropotamobius pallipes

The white-clawed crayfish is a native UK species, listed as ‘Vulnerable’, but is being driven out of UK waterways by the invasive North American signal crayfish, which out-competes our own crayfish as well as being a carrier of the deadly crayfish plaque. BCSF and our partners are working with anglers, landowners and the general public in the south west of the UK to highlight the dangers facing this species.

Visitors to Bristol Zoo are able to see white-clawed crayfish, and find out more about this important species, in a new exhibit within the Zoo’s Aquarium. The Zoo is breeding this ‘at risk’ species on site to create safe populations which can eventually be released into safe, freshwater ‘ark’ sites in the wild.