New Outlet to Report Your Sightings of Aliens

American Bullfrog - An invasive species in the UK

For our UK readers: Have you ever found a foreign species and ever wondered what could be done about the situation? Wonder no more! You can now do your bit to help out the environment in the UK by reporting your sightings of these creatures.

Defra has recently foot the bill for a web-based project which will allow you to share your contacts with foreign species, which are just not supposed to be there.

The project is being run by the National Biodiversity Network, Anglia Ruskin University, GB Non-native Species Secretariat and the Center for Ecology and Hydrology, and its primary focus will be on ten of the some odd 3,000 plus non-native species currently making their home in the UK.

These ten species you can report on the website were selected because they are easily identifiable, are highly invasive, and of course how useful the information is going to be once it is collected.

The ten species that made it to the “Most Wanted” list are: the Chinese mitten crab, Zebra mussel, American Bullfrog, Creeping water-primrose, Floating Pennywort, and Water Fern.

You can have learn more about the project, how you can get involved, and submit your report on the Recording Invasive Species Counts (RISC) Website.

Any of the reports you submit will be checked by experts; as such it is kindly requested that with each submission you do, that you also submit as much detailed information as possible, along with a photograph.

Once your report has been verified, it will be added to a national database and made available for public viewing on the National Biodiversity Network Gateway.