The Sceptic Tank is reasonably certain that, in the entire history of the English language, fish and llamas have rarely, if ever, appeared in the same sentence. While we’re not word perfect on the book of Genesis, we’re pretty sure llamas were not name-checked as God created the heavens and the Earth in what is widely regarded as the hardest week’s work in history.

But today llamas, fish and some of the UK’s most scenic countryside have come together in a story so eerily reminiscent of something from The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine that we really don’t need to cast about for a comedy angle.

You see, warming water has forced the Environment Agency to relocate 25,000 of the UK’s rarest freshwater fish, vendace, from their previous home in Derwent Water up a Lake District fell to a refuge in the cool waters of Sprinkling Tarn.

This is trickier than it sounds and, in probably the first claimed carbon saving to be attributed to llamas, the noble beasts were used to carry the fish from their only known UK habitat, as their new home near Seathwaite Fell is inaccessible even to Land Rovers.

“By introducing these vendace into Sprinkling Tarn, where water temperatures will be lower, it will provide an additional element of safeguarding for this endangered species,” said Andy Gowans, the Environment Agency’s very own AquaMan. “The fish will be closely monitored, in the hope that a self-sustaining population will be established.”

The Tank could have sworn it heard someone venture Scafell Pike as a more suitable home, but then we are a bit hard of herring.

(Source: www.businessgreen.com )