The plague of mutant crab clones invades the Schoonselhof cemetery, Antwerp, Belgium – Environment – Life

Hundreds of crabs genetically modified to be pets have invaded the Schoonselhof cemetery in Antwerp, one of the most important cities in Belgium.

It is a kind of marbled crab or shrimp (“Procambarus virginalis”). This variation of the animal was identified in the 1990s in Germany and is believed to have arisen from the pet trade.

In fact, there is no record of any natural population of these crabs, which does not mean they cannot reproduce once released.

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Exactly this was verified in the Schoonselhof cemetery, which is known to house the bodies of several soldiers who died in combat during the Second World War.

There, in late October, hundreds of these animals began to be reported in the pools and streams surrounding the place. , as reported by the newspaper “The Brussels Times”.

(If you read us from the app, you see on this map where the Schoonselhof cemetery is located).

This led the Flemish Institute for Nature and Forest Research (Inbo) to classify the infestation as dangerous to local biodiversity, the media said.

But, Why are they so dangerous?

A breeding machine

(Do you read us from the app? See here two photographs of marbled river crabs).

Marbled shrimp are animals that can grow to about 10 centimeters, an ideal size for ornamental aquariums.

Its appearance is similar to that of other shrimp such as those that frequently appear in the waters of Florida, United States.

Marbled, however, has a feature that sets it apart from its close “relatives”: it reproduces by parthenogenesis due to a chromosomal mutation.

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That is, they can reproduce on their own without the need for a partner. All children are born identical to the parent and do so in a very short time, which leads to that, given the conditions, the population grows uncontrollably.

His diet consists of “in everything they can grab (leaves, insects, other small snails, fish, etc.) it is able to travel up to 2 km and dig up to a meter deep “, an Inbo spokesperson told “The Brussels Times”.

This is what is happening at Schoonselhof, a place from which several crabs may have moved to other areas, as they are easily transported both by land and by water.

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The massification of these clones gives rise to a worrying diagnosis since, as The Brussels Times states, there is currently no way to control the growing population.

And Belgium isn’t the only country facing the marble crab in the long run.

As published in the journal ‘Nature’ in 2018, these specimens are already a problem in Madagascar (Africa) and could continue to be so in other parts of Europe.

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