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Giant earthworms have transformed the Isle of Rum's landscape


Earthworms act as ecosystem engineers and over centuries, they have shaped the landscape and changed the soils on the Isle of Rum in Scotland. Here’s how.

Renowned for a thriving and intricately studied population of around 900 red deer, the Isle of Rum, part of Scotland’s Inner Hebrides, is often considered an outdoor laboratory for scientific research. On an island with no badgers and no moles, a good supply of leaf litter for food and little disturbance from humans, we found the UK’s largest Lumbricus terrestris ever reported in the wild. The Isle of Rum is home to the UK’s largest earthworms.Kevin Richard Butt, CC BY-ND At over 13g, some three times the normal weight for this species, these earthworms may have been up to ten years old.

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