Just add water: heavy rainfall revives ancient species on the Scottish Solway Coast - Buglife

Recent wet weather has hatched a new population of the rare and ancient Tadpole Shrimp – one of the world’s oldest living animal species – at RSPB Mersehead in Dumfries, only the third population of the species in the UK.

In recent decades, the Tadpole Shrimp (Triops cancriformis) had been reduced to only two locations in the UK: the New Forest in Hampshire and the Wildfoul and Wetland Trust’s (WWT) site at Caerlaverock on the Scottish Solway Coast. The species had formally been present at Mersehead on the Solway Coast, however the population was thought eradicated in the 1960s when its site was engulfed by the sea. The last official record of the Tadpole Shrimp at Mersehead was 1948.

Through the endangered species conservation programme, Species on the Edge, wildlife charities Buglife, RSPB and WWT have been working with local ecologist Larry Griffin of ECO-LG Ltd to reintroduce the Tadpole Shrimp to its former site at the RSPB’s Mersehead Nature Reserve. In the summers of 2024 and 2025, Tadpole Shrimp eggs were introduced to a selection of locations at the Reserve in the hope of them hatching into the UK’s newest Tadpole Shrimp population.

Requiring rehydration before hatching, the recent wet weather on the Solway Coast has finally allowed the eggs to hatch, with two adult Tadpole Shrimps spotted at the site this month for the first time since the eggs were deposited.

Craig Macadam, Conservation Director at Buglife, said: “It’s been over 60 years since the Tadpole Shrimp was lost from this stretch of coast because of coastal erosion. Bringing this species back to Mersehead is the culmination of many years of surveys, research and preparation by many organisations and individuals. This work will help secure the future of this species in Scotland, and should pave the way for further translocations to try and restore and enhance its original UK distribution.”