The titular character in Bram Stoker’s 1897 gothic horror Dracula wasn’t the first ‘vampire’ to have come to these islands in the late 19th century. A decade or two earlier, another fearsome creature had arrived from mainland Europe, this one with a taste for small fish.
What is a zander?
The zander (Sander lucioperca) is the largest member of the Percidae, a family of predatory fish characterised by a split dorsal fin that is often spined in the front section. Capable of growing more than a metre in length and weighing up to 15kg, the zander is muscular, long-bodied and sleek in silver. It is sometimes known as the ‘pike-perch’ due to a false belief, due to its appearance, that it is a hybrid of those two species.
Are zanders native to the UK?
Present across much of western Eurasia, from the cold, glacial lakes of Finland to the brackish estuarine reaches of the Baltic and Black Seas, there is no evidence to suggest that the zander has ever been native in the UK.
However, in 1878, and probably swayed by its popularity within several central European cuisines, 100 small zander were introduced to lakes at Woburn Abbey with a further stocking made in 1910. A subsequent netting of the lakes in 1947 found zander of multiple size and year class, alongside a healthy population of native fish which perhaps then offered a false impression of the it’s ecological impact.
Within the next few years, fish from Woburn were stocked elsewhere, including the River Ouzel, from which it found its way into the Grand Union Canal and the extended canal network. By the 1960s, following further stockings and population expansion, zander had spread through the fens and East Anglia and into the Severn and Trent river systems.
What do zander eat and prey on?
Much of its impact has been anecdotal, but a decrease in biomass of smaller cyprinid species, such as the roach (Rutilus rutilus), has corresponded with the increased presence of zander. In their natural range exists an ecological balance, with a greater variety of the smaller species upon which zander prey. They have relatively small mouths with two prominent front teeth, which, along with the bulbous eyeballs, have led to that moniker ‘the vampire fish’.
Do they hunt alone or as a group?
Zander are a shoal species which may offer the impression that they hunt as a singular pack. In reality, they share behavioural patterns rather than work together, but in confined habitat, such as a canal, where their large eyes offer excellent sight in coloured water, their sheer shoal number can pin prey fish into a tight area where they are steadily picked off.
Management of zander in the UK
The zander is now listed on Schedule 9 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981, meaning it is illegal to introduce them to the wild, and there are efforts to eradicate them, with The Canal and River Trust conducting an ongoing management programme. This may prove successful on smaller waterways, but on larger rivers such as the Severn, the zander should find sufficient shadowy seclusion to survive for some years to come.
