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THE LIVING WORLD
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PROGRAMME INFO |
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The Living WorldÌýis a gentle weekend natural history programme, presented by Lionel Kelleway, which aims to broadcast the best, most intimate encounters with British wildlife.
nhuradio@bbc.co.uk |
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LISTEN AGAIN Ìý25min |
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PRESENTER |
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"The Living World is the next best thing to being there. Our contributors are skilled naturalists who are able to reveal those fascinating facts about animals and plants that you don't always find in books. It's like having a personal guided tour of the countryside, without needing to leave the house."
Lionel Kelleway
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PROGRAMME DETAILS |
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| A Chinese Mitten Crab |
Mitten Crabs
Lionel Kelleway joins Chris Dutton from the Environment Agency on a small island called Chiswick Ait to look for some invaders that are taking over the banks of the Thames - Chinese Mitten Crabs.
These charismatic crustaceans, which get their name from the woolly mittens on their pincers, arrived in England last century but numbers grew in the 1990s.
It has been assumed that they arrived in the ballast water of ships but Chris believes they made their own way across the Channel from Europe , where they had been previously introduced.
They are now found in the Thames as far upstream as Staines . They have few predators and can eat almost anything so they have been hugely successful, but with a cost to the environment: they burrow a metre or more into the mud banks, causing them to collapse. Lionel sees for himself how the banks are eroding and asks if anything can be done to stop the destruction.
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