The Coconut Crab

730 Words3 Pages
COCONUT CRAB RESEARCH PAPER The coconut crab, also known as the robber crab, is a species of hermit crab that spends most of its time on land. A strange animal, its closest relatives are the hermit crabs of the genus Coenobita. These hermit crabs can store water in their shells, allowing them to stay on land for elongated periods of time. However, there is one big difference between the coconut crab and other hermit crabs: it doesn’t have a shell, instead developing a hard exoskeleton on their abdomen. The other difference is that the coconut crab actually has lungs instead of gills; it breathes air, and will drown in water. It is the largest terrestrial arthropod in the world, found on islands in the Indian Ocean and parts of the Pacific Ocean. Its diet consists of primarily fleshy fruits (coconuts, hence its name,) nuts, the pith of fallen trees, and occasionally small animals such as tortoise hatchlings, dead animals, and other crabs. [4] The exact number of coconut crabs is not known, but according to various reports, the population is somewhat large, with one of the largest populations on Caroline Island. However, on some of the other islands that it inhabits it is much less common. [2] Coconut crabs are the food source for many people, so they are hunted often by humans as well as rats, pigs, and certain ants (the yellow crazy ant). [2] Since the coconut crab grows very slowly (life expectancy can be up to 100 years,) these creatures are killed faster than they can have new babies. [2] There is some conservation in certain areas, with a minimum size for hunting and prohibition of hunting during the breeding period. [2] Scientists conduct research on coconut crabs by capturing them, measuring, and tagging them with felt pens, burning, freezing, or a small chip and then releasing them back into the wild. Their movements are then recorded with radio-tracking

More about The Coconut Crab

Open Document