November Thoughts - Coconut Crab

• Nov 5


So for todays topic... Coconut Crabs, brought to you by a request by Megan



So Megan and I were talking on MSN when randomly she sent me this picture:







I immediately called it a fake, thinking it was plastic and a Halloween prank, and then when to research and find out if I was right so I could bask in my rightness.



However I was wrong, while Snopes (a great hoax checking website) had an article on that very picture and couldn't confirm it was real, there is little reason to doubt its authenticity.



So that lead me to the question what are these huge crabs and where are they from.



The Crab is a Coconut Crab, and they are found on islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. However these are trestrial crustations, the largest in fact, and thus aren't found in the water but on land.. or in trees... yes they are known to climb up 20 ft into palm trees. Not your average crab.



They grow to have a leg span of up to three feet and can weigh up to 35 lbs... They live up to 60 years and never stop growing. These crabs are called Coconut crabs because they eat coconuts, wow big surprise right, there pinchers are so strong they can open a coconut with it. (and to think we measly humans have to use a hammer!) but you know they will also settle for meals of rats and turtle hatchlings...



Back to the Pinchers, they can lift objects over sixty pounds with those things, which helps them get their nickname of the "robber crab" as it is rumored they will sometimes drag off shiney objects.



Since they are nocturnal.... just imaging coming home one night and being ambushed by a coconut crab jumping out of a tree all Ninja like to take you down.



Oh did I mention they developed the ability to smell..... fear and blood.......... ok maybe just rotting fruit.. but I know they are evolving the blood thing just wait and see.



So how high are these guys on the threat to the human population factor? well if you can avoid their Ninja abilities and catch them in the daylight not too much as they are considered an excellent tasting crab, and are also an aphrodisiac. (think about it ninja and love making abilities) However their tastiness has lead to extinction from some islands and dwindling population overall. People have proposed farming them, but they can be violent and not much is know about the reproductive cycle so no wide scale production has ever been attempted.



So there you have it.. a nomination of crustacean of the year.... the Coconut Crab a love making Ninja of a crustacean.



Tough competition for last years winner....





Mr. Crabs







So what would we do if we came across one of these...



Megan would:
"I would cry and scream really loud, and maybe faint"






I would:
"I'd poke it with a stick"



of course Megan was being a negative nacey and claimed the crab would break my stick and turn on me.
Probably luckily for both of us we will never see one of these in person.