Crayfish, Crawfish, Crawdad; no matter what you call them, If you live in the southeastern United States, their biodiversity hotspot is in your backyard! Astacologist (crayfish biologist) Dr. Zack Graham joins us on this episode to tell us just how wild these freshwater crustaceans are. He shares just a bit of his knowledge on their biodiversity, interesting behaviors, their impact on American culture, and some of the unique threats they continue to face. 

At the end of the day, why do crayfish matter? Zack says, “I think at a basic level, humans are just generally curious about what's going on out in nature. And that's what really fuels a lot of my work, just trying to understand what has happened in the past, what's going to happen in the future to these animals that have been living on earth for over 300 million years. They've been here for a very long time. So I think, you know, they kind of have a right to be here and to be protected and to be studied and understood.”

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Zack Graham - Transcript

Episode image credit: Zack Graham

Learn more about Zack’s lab: https://crayfish.westliberty.edu/

You can also follow them on facebook: www.facebook.com/wlucrayfish

And on Instagram: @wlucrayfishlab

You can order Zack’s book here: https://uncpress.org/9781469685731/crayfish-crawfish-crawdad/

Learn more about the International Association of Astacology: https://www.astacology.org/default.asp?uid=Guest

Peruse the American Crayfish Atlas: https://americancrayfishatlas.web.illinois.edu/

And check out some beautiful crayfish photos from Zack’s adventures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/196391561@N03/

Be sure to follow New Species on Bluesky (@newspeciespodcast.bsky.social) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and “like” the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast).

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at [email protected]

If you would like to support this podcast and enjoy bonus episodes, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod