--- title: New Species of Crayfish Named After Edward Snowden description: Snowden has some big fans in the German science community canonical: https://time.com/4010078/crayfish-edward-snowden/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-25T17:28:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T10:25:32.225Z article:section: Science og:title: New Species of Crayfish Named After Edward Snowden og:description: Snowden has some big fans in the German science community og:url: https://time.com/4010078/crayfish-edward-snowden/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7dba052781fb01c1/698860cda988ca66876b40c6/snowden-crawfish.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Cherax Snowden og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New Species of Crayfish Named After Edward Snowden twitter:description: Snowden has some big fans in the German science community twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7dba052781fb01c1/698860cda988ca66876b40c6/snowden-crawfish.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New Species of Crayfish Named After Edward Snowden  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Aug 25, 2015 5:28 PM UTC  Chris Lukhaup  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Aug 25, 2015 5:28 PM UTC Scientists have named a new species of crayfish after NSA leaker Edward Snowden German researcher Christian Lukhaup and two of his colleagues are apparently admirers of the former NSA contractor now living in Moscow. “The new species is named after the American freedom fighter Edward Joseph Snowden,” they wrote in their study, published Monday in the [journal ZooKeys.](http://zookeys.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=6127) “He is honored due to his extraordinary achievements in defense of justice, and freedom.” The _Cherax snowden_ had previously been misidentified as a very similar but different species of crustacean. It hails from West Papua in Indonesia and is often kept as a pet by crayfish enthusiasts in Europe, East Asia and North America because of its orange tipped claws. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4010078/crayfish-edward-snowden/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4010078/crayfish-edward-snowden/"},"headline":"New Species of Crayfish Named After Edward Snowden","datePublished":"2015-08-25T17:28:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:25:32.225Z","description":"Snowden has some big fans in the German science community","url":"https://time.com/4010078/crayfish-edward-snowden/","keywords":["animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7dba052781fb01c1/698860cda988ca66876b40c6/snowden-crawfish.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7dba052781fb01c1/698860cda988ca66876b40c6/snowden-crawfish.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Cherax Snowden","caption":"Cherax Snowden","creditText":"Chris Lukhaup","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/animals/","name":"animals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4010078/crayfish-edward-snowden/","name":"New Species of Crayfish Named After Edward Snowden"}}]}] ```