Whats different about the yabbies lifestyle?
Biologically, yabbies are adapted to making sure that some of them survive an extreme drought to start a new population when surface water returns. They do this by burrowing down to the water table when surface water dries up. Drought for a crayfish usually means the regular annual cycle of drying out of surface water in swamps, pools and small creeks after winter. Our native species of koonacs and gilgies live in these “ephemeral” habitats; they breed in their burrows in late summer and emerge to feed and grow during winter and early spring. The famous red swamp crawfish, Procambarus clarkii, in Louisiana has the same lifestyle. Yabbies are different; they breed during spring and summer and grow best during summer and little during winter. Yabbies seem to be adapted to the long term drought of the outback lasting several years. When rain does fall (often as summer cyclonic downpours), surface water lasts for several years. The few surviving yabbies are biologically adapted to start th
