Ratten ontdekken Zwanenmossels Anodonta cygnea (L.) op Texel

We discovered a number of damaged but still articulated shells of Anodonta cygnea on Texel. This damage was most probably due to rats, which apparently had found this new food source. Up to 2005 A. cygnea was unknown from the Island of Texel. The first were discovered in 2005 in the Moksloot on Texel (but not published earlier). We speculate how this new freshwater mussel arrived on the Island of Texel. Swan mussels disperse by larvae, which live for a couple of weeks as parasites on (freshwater) fishes. These fishes are unable to cross the marine Marsdiep between Texel and the mainland. Darwin already published on birds transporting freshwater mussels attached to their feet. More probably, however, men, stocking their garden ponds with imported plants and animals, introduced it. Some even introduce new water plants and animals in our nature reserves, for example waterlilies in the Moksloot. They probably also introduced Swan mussels.