We have occasionally seen crayfish here over the years. Typically, they’ve been deceased and we would think they were dropped or discarded by a bird. We’ve seen a live one a couple of other times though. I did NOT know that there were burrowing species of crayfish that primarily live underground. I also did NOT know that there were multiple species of native crayfish in Michigan and also a few invasive species as well. From reading this 32 page guide to Michigan Crayfish from the MSU Extension – I now know all of that and a whole lot more! I believe this to be a Digger crayfish (Creaserinus fodiens) based on physical characteristics (though I didn’t know what I was looking for when we had the crayfish in hand). Also, based on seeing what we now think are the “chimneys” of their burrows and our location with their behavior also makes this species make the most sense here. Check out this video of the meeting!
While we are at it – do you say crayfish or crawfish? Or maybe crawdad or mudbug? Apparently it’s mostly based on where you live! Here’s a cool video I ran across when trying to figure out which was “correct”.
