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Freshwater animals

Signal crayfish

Amazing fact

Signal crayfish have large pale bluish markings at the base of their claws.

国立環境研究所
Signal crayfish in its habitat (illustration)

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An illustration based on the real animal.

A little discovery to share.

Signal crayfish have large pale bluish markings at the base of their claws.

Source国立環境研究所 — ウチダザリガニ（ザリガニ科）

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THE REAL WORLD

The real Signal crayfish

Scientific name
Pacifastacus leniusculus
Japanese name
ウチダザリガニ
Group
Freshwater animals
Class
Malacostraca
Order
Decapoda
Family
Astacidae
Genus
Pacifastacus
Facts about the real animal.
01

A crayfish native to southwestern Canada and the northwestern United States.

鳥羽水族館 — ウチダザリガニ
02

In Japan, too, crayfish brought over from the United States have settled in the wild.

鳥羽水族館 — ウチダザリガニ

How the Signal crayfish lives

They are usually more active at night. They eat a variety of foods and catch aquatic animals. In autumn, changes in day length trigger mating. Females carry eggs through winter and release young crayfish from spring to early summer.

国立環境研究所

Basic data

Range
Southwestern Canada and the northwestern United States
鳥羽水族館

Where the Signal crayfish has been recorded

World map with dots where the Signal crayfish has been recorded
Each dot marks a place with observations or specimens shared on GBIF. Some records are of animals that strayed or were brought by people, so the dots are not always where the animal lives.

Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF

Where it livesNorth AmericaRivers and wetlands

Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.

Names around the world

简体中文
信号小龙虾
繁體中文
通訊螯蝦
Português (Brasil)
Lagostim-Sinal

Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.

Sources and how we check

We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.

The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.

The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.

This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.

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