Zebra mussels occur in North America from southern Canada to New Orleans
through most of the major drainages east of the Rocky Mountains. Go to
http://www.great-lakes.org/exotics.html for info and to
http://www.nationalatlas.gov/zmussels1.html for a great animated map.

The latest "addition" to our fauna, the round goby, is a fish that loves to
eat zebras. Unfortunately, it is also an exotic and is displacing native
fish such as sculpins, etc. Muskrats also eat them, but obviously there's
more bang for their buck in eating native mussels or farmer's crops.
Europe, for the most part, rarely has the enormous densities of zebras that
we are seeing. Remember that Europe has had them for centuries so the
zebras have had some time to come more into balance with the endemic fauna.

What is the next step? Unknown. Perhaps they'll settle out at some much
lower population level. Maybe they'll always be a problem, like dandelions,
starlings, and new age music. Too early to tell. We are living in a time of
major ecological upheaval and it's too soon to say how it will all play out.


G. Thomas Watters, PhD
Curator of Molluscs
Museum of Biological Diversity
Department of Evolution, Ecology & Organismal Biology
The Ohio State University
1315 Kinnear Road
Columbus, OH 43212
v: 614-292-6170
f: 614-292-7774

Visit the Molluscs Division at:
http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~molluscs/OSUM2