A bit of surrealism: in Belgium, mutant crayfish took over the city cemetery

The difficult year 2020 has not yet ended and it is still too early to relax. Apocalyptic news from time to time continues to come from different parts of the world and today the trouble has come to the outskirts of Antwerp, Belgium. One of the local cemeteries was occupied by mutant crayfish, which multiply at an incredible speed.

Marble crayfish are a species consisting of only females: they do not need males at all for procreation. All the offspring of these cancers can be called biological clones of mothers, that is, absolutely identical individuals to the parent. These creatures feed on everything that comes to hand, that is, a claw, starting from carrion, and ending with vegetation and its rotted remains.

In addition to being omnivorous, these arthropods have another interesting feature — they quickly adapt to any conditions, simply turning on and off certain genes as necessary. Therefore, theoretically, these mutants are not afraid of European frosts. Marble crayfish are not found in the wild: they were artificially bred in the 1990s by German breeders as decorative aquarium animals.

This species, common in home and office aquariums, has already begun to slowly explore the expanses of Austria, Germany, France, Japan, Madagascar and Israel, getting into the wild in various ways. But in Belgium," on the free pasture", and even in huge numbers, they have not met before.

Female cancer with caviar

Biologists, having examined a large cemetery population of mutant crayfish, could not give an exact answer why they chose the churchyard for life, ignoring many other places of the wonderful Antwerp. But it is not difficult to explain how the marble crayfish were released. As in other countries, they got on the street because of not too smart owners.

Young marble cancer

For a reason known only to them, the mutant cancer females chose a cemetery located near several channels to create a colony, and now they are rapidly settling it. Scientists now face a difficult task to rid the place of grief of unwanted residents, and so as not to harm these plants and other animals living in these places.