Environment Agency biodiversity officer Tim Selway with native crayfish at Fountains Abbey
RESIDENTS of Fountains Abbey have been moved to a new home away from American cousins who could destroy them.
The National Trust and the Environment Agency combined forces to move native white-clawed crayfish from the River Skell at the ruins to water upstream behind a reservoir dam.
The move was necessary after wildlife experts found someone had released invasive American signal crayfish into the river where the native variety has lived since before the monks arrived.
The experts believe foreign crayfish, whose presence has diminished native stocks elsewhere, cannot get through the dam.
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