Long time, no post! There’s just not that much to write about since we are stationary. We saw an interesting cairn at the top of Hidden Trail. Somebody put some effort into building this. I guess it’s not actually a cairn since it’s off the trail.
We rode out the Santa Cruz trail out to the Rillito trail this morning. It was a really nice day. The wind is so weird, it switches directions frequently. It was good to be outside. The flu levels are so high in this state we’re afraid to go into any retail. We went to the grocery store yesterday and it seemed like everybody was coughing. It was a very quick shopping. Currently much time is spent outside.
This is a marmokreb. It’s a new species. It does not need a male to reproduce. Currently they’re taking over Europe, threatening the native crayfish. German pet stores were selling them, but people were soon inundated with their offspring and started releasing them into the wild. The original crayfish was born in Florida or Georgia. A gene mutation allowed it to make daughters that are all genetically identical to the parent. They produce hundreds of off spring frequently. The article goes in to more detail about them. They’re the ultimate in monoculture, it’ll be interesting to see if a virus or a disease wipes them all out.
Before about 25 years ago, the species simply did not exist. A single drastic mutation in a single crayfish produced the marbled crayfish in an instant.
The mutation made it possible for the creature to clone itself, and now it has spread across much of Europe and gained a toehold on other continents. In Madagascar, where it arrived about 2007, it now numbers in the millions and threatens native crayfish.
So that’s it! The crayfish are coming for us.
At the moment here the thought of just wearing shorts and a top are a long way off. The only similarity is however we have the same colds and flu doing the rounds.
ReplyDeleteThat creature looks like a slug with claws. SHIVER!
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