This crab can open coconuts with its bare hands and even climb trees to eat birds!

In the hot summer, it is best to go to the beach to enjoy the breeze and drink a coconut. It is quite troublesome to open a coconut. Even for an experienced coconut opener, it takes several cuts to open a coconut.

If you are not careful, you may scratch your knife.

Image source: Internet

However, don’t think that you are the only one who can eat coconuts, some crabs can eat them and some can even open coconuts with their bare hands!

It is the protagonist of today's museum calendar - the coconut crab.

Coconut crab lying on coconut

Image source: Wikipedia

It's a crab, but it's not a crab

Although the name contains "crab", the coconut crab is not a crab, but a hermit crab.

Let's first distinguish between crabs and hermit crabs. When you eat hairy crabs, the "crab navel" used to distinguish between male and female is the abdomen of the Chinese mitten crab.

The navel of the hairy crab is the abdomen of the Chinese mitten crab.

Image source: Internet

A typical crab has a well-developed cephalothorax and a calcified shell, which constitutes the main part of the body, while the abdomen is underdeveloped and attached to the cephalothorax. Next time, you can try to gently pry open the abdomen of the hairy crab while ensuring that your hands will not be pinched.

In contrast, the abdomen of a hermit crab is more developed. Some people may say, "The abdomen of a hermit crab is not well developed either. I have never seen one." This is because the abdomen of a hermit crab is mostly hidden in the shell it carries on its back, and its abdomen clings tightly to this mobile fortress in a place you cannot see.

Hermit crabs carry heavy shells

Image source: Documentary "Life Story"

More stories about hermit crabs

The coconut crab is also a hermit crab, but it is an outlier because its abdomen is degenerate. Although the coconut crab has lost the ability to "pick up a house", its shell is strong enough to protect itself, and it does not need the armor it picked up to protect itself.

Besides, don’t you see how big he is?

This coconut crab is a veteran and has scared many people

Image source: ok.ru

Of course, the above refers to coconut crabs that have grown and developed to a certain stage. The larvae, like other types of hermit crabs, also need shells to protect themselves.

Cracking a coconut with bare hands, amazing grip strength

Since it is called a coconut crab, it must be a good eater of coconuts. You may not be able to open a whole coconut with your bare hands, but coconut crabs can.

Want to eat coconut? I'll break it open for you.

Image source see watermark

Coconut crabs will start from the germination hole of the coconut and pry open the coconut shell little by little with pliers.

Coconut crabs do not use both pincers to insert into the germination hole or gap at the same time to pry open the coconut because their pectoral muscles are not well developed, but the muscles on the pincers are well developed.

The left (slightly larger) force can provide an average of 120 kg of grip force, with some individuals able to output over 300 kg of grip force.

Coconut crabs eat coconuts, yeah

Image source see watermark

What is the concept of this?

You should know that the maximum grip strength of an adult male is about 100 kg, while the maximum grip strength of all humans is only about 195 kg. The heaviest coconut crab is about 8 kg, and you should know how much you weigh, right?

Next time you see a coconut crab, don't try to test its claws with your own body. If you lose a finger, don't say I didn't warn you.

After eating vegetarian food, I want to eat bird!

Coconut crabs are omnivores. Living on deserted islands, they will eat anything they can find. In addition to coconuts, they also eat fruits and seeds from other plants.

It is not fun to eat only vegetarian food. Coconut crabs will even add some meat to their diet. The little turtles on the beach that have just broken out of their shells but haven't had time to swim into the sea will also become snacks for coconut crabs. Even other types of crabs with hard shells are vulnerable to coconut crabs.

Oh, it looks like a stupid dog.

Some coconut crabs even eat birds!

In 2017, a coconut crab was found climbing a tree in the Chagos Archipelago, 500 kilometers south of the Maldives, quietly approaching and successfully attacking a red-footed booby. The booby's bones were broken and it was at the mercy of the coconut crab.

Red-footed booby: bowing to fate

Image source see watermark

However, there seem to be no more reports of coconut crabs attacking birds in the Chagos Archipelago and other coconut crab distribution areas, so the "case" in 2017 may be just an isolated incident, and "climbing trees to catch birds" has not become a habit of coconut crabs or a culture that can be spread within the species.

However, coconut crabs are very good at climbing trees, so if you walk under a tree, you have to be careful with your head.

Coconut crab on a tree

Image source see watermark

Widely distributed, survival is worrying

Coconut crabs are widely distributed in tropical waters from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean. However, if you want to see it, you don’t have to go far. It is also distributed in southern Taiwan, my country.

Before 2018, the IUCN did not accurately assess the threat level of coconut crabs due to "lack of data". In August 2018, coconut crabs were assessed as vulnerable on the grounds that coconut crabs have become extinct on many of their native islands, and on islands where they have not been completely extinct, coconut crabs are also threatened by habitat loss and human hunting.

Remember last September, when more than 50 coconut crabs besieged a family having an open-air barbecue on Christmas Island in Australia?

Don't panic, it's a small scene

Image source: Internet

The family did not let the coconut crabs join the luxurious dinner of the humans, but let them snatch their food. On the one hand, they could not beat them (wrong), and on the other hand, coconut crabs are protected animals in Australia. So what else can they do? They can only let them eat first.

Although coconut crabs can be traded freely in China and their meat is delicious, their numbers are endangered, so we should be more careful with them.

Written by | Wu Haifeng

WeChat Editor | Ah She Shuang

Source | Museum