A crab that eats coconuts


They grow things big in the tropics sometimes.

Like this crab.

This pix shows what looks like a hermit crab, using a sea shell for a portable house, in the forest on the dive island of Sipadan. Small enough to cup in your hand.

But this is a baby coconut crab, and he outgrows childish things like protective sea shells…

See that little bit if grey peeking out from behind the shell on the left hand top? That is the end of a 14 cm (5.5″) marker pen lying on the sand.

This fellow is almost a metre across…

And he snacks on coconuts.


Comments

A crab that eats coconuts — 3 Comments

  1. If that crab can overcome the shell of a coconut, imagine what it could do to fingers and toes – like us eating pretzels!

  2. I remember when I was about 8 we had friends drop off a coconut crab claw for us. If I remember correctly it fed our family of 5 for two nights.. was living in PNG at the time..

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