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I’ll bet they have some in the creeks around Oak Ridge
Posted By katie allison granju
Who knew that Tennessee is home to a rare type of crawfish the size of dinner plates?:
To protect the species, officials won’t give away exact locations found, but they include parts of the Middle and West Fork Drakes Creek in Sumner County and Line Creek in Clay County.
Tennessee has at least 78 species of crawfish, which may be more than any other state, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
Nine are considered endangered by the state. One, the Nashville crayfish, is listed as federally endangered and has been central to opposition to a marina planned on Mill Creek near downtown.
Another state resident, the Cajun dwarf crawfish, is, as an adult, shorter than the diameter of a quarter.
The abundance of crawdad species is attributed to the state’s varied topography (from mountains to swampy bottomlands), its many streams and its location between the more extreme northern and southern climes.
Also called ‘Barbi’
At up to 9 inches from claw to tail, Barbicambarus cornutus, the crawfish state biologists have documented, is the largest of the crawfish here.
“It’s not just a species restricted to a single watershed,” state biologist David Withers said of the creature he refers affectionately to as “Barbi.”
“It’s the only one in its genus.”
That means they are not even “close cousins,” he said.
Dec 24th, 2007
