Dogs play part in plan to protect species

INVADERS FROM AMERICA ARE THREAT TO NATIVE CRAYFISH

SOUTH WEST WATER is using highly trained dogs to detect crayfish in Devon, as part of a conservation scheme.

Invasive North American signal crayfish can have a devastating impact on native wildlife, eating a wide range of invertebrates and small fish and carrying crayfish plague, a disease that destroys Britain's native whiteclawed crayfish population.

South West Water and South West Lakes have teamed up with Sequor Ecology Detection Dogs as part of an ongoing large-scale control programme which started last autumn to remove signal crayfish from Dartmoor's Burrator Reservoir.