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coconut crab in Podcasts

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Coconut crabs are large terrestrial crustaceans known for their ability to climb trees and their high population densities on certain islands.

Mentions Over Time

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Mentions in Podcasts

ExtinctZoo
Why All Roads Lead To Crab

There's a 2016 study which caught 29 wild coconut crabs, ranging in body weight from about 33 grams up to around 2.1 kilograms, and basically clamped each one onto a force sensor to see what they could do.

ExtinctZoo
Why All Roads Lead To Crab

As juveniles, coconut crabs actually behave like ordinary hermit crabs, finding and wearing snail shells for protection.

ExtinctZoo
Why All Roads Lead To Crab

Also not a crab, and also descended from hermit crab-like ancestors, just like the king crab, but this time going in a completely different evolutionary direction.

ExtinctZoo
Why All Roads Lead To Crab

And then, there's the coconut crab, Burgus latro, which we already met committing a felony at the start.

ExtinctZoo
Why All Roads Lead To Crab

And the really weird thing isn't just that they aren't crabs, it's that they aren't even closely related to them either.

ExtinctZoo
Why All Roads Lead To Crab

And as it so turns out, coconut crabs are not alone in this.

ExtinctZoo
Why All Roads Lead To Crab

On the flip side, the one nearby crab-free island in the survey found ground nesting birds were happily nesting on the ground like, well, any other self-respecting ground nester.