Crawfish: Beyond Jambalaya
Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife
Crawfish, crayfish, or crawdad to you…Procambarus clarki is actually just one of its kind.
If I say, “How many crawfish species from Texas can you name?” Most of the people only know one; and that’s the eating kind.
Despite its popularity at the boil, very little research on crawfish has existed…until now…Nathan Johnson is the enthusiast, activist, and coauthor behind a new field guide to Texas crawdads.
There’s about 40 species of crayfish in our state. Prairie Crawfish have never been described in literature outside of Collin County, TX. and wasn’t even discovered until, uh, the 90s when it was trapped in snake traps. They were doing a study of reptiles out in the prairie and these crawfish showed up, and they were like, “amazing!”
Raising awareness about the various species living in Texas, such as the Prairie Crawfish, and the unique niche they fill in our ecosystems; Johnson hopes that people will take more care to conserve them.
If you don’t know it exists, how do you know to be concerned? This book is a resource towards understanding crayfish, what habitats we might want to be concerned about, and which species we need to pay attention to because they’re so specialized or restricted in their range.
Learn more about Texas crawdads at passporttotexas.org
That’s our show…with research and writing help from Sarah Loden… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Texas Crawdads
http://www.texascrawdads.com
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