OMG! This terrifies me! Don't sleep on the beach!
9 November 2017
Giant coconut crab sneaks up on a sleeping bird and kills it
The gruesome finale
photograph copyright Mark Laidre
By Jake Buehler
A giant coconut crab has been filmed stalking, killing and devouring a seabird. It is the first time these whopping crustaceans have been seen actively hunting large, back-boned animals, and suggests they might dominate their island ecosystems.
Coconut crabs (
Birgus latro), also known as robber crabs, are an imposing sight. They can weigh up to 4 kilograms, as much as a house cat, and sport legs that span almost a metre. This makes them the largest invertebrates – animals without backbones – on land. The crabs live on coral atolls in the tropical Indian and Pacific oceans.
They are renowned for their tree-climbing abilities and taste for coconuts, which they
crack open with their powerful claws. They do sometimes eat meat, but until now it was thought that they only obtained it by opportunistic scavenging.
Between January and March 2016,
Mark Laidre of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire visited the Chagos Archipelago, a remote series of atolls in the Indian Ocean. Chagos is ideal for studying coconut crabs: it is in pristine condition, is surrounded by
one of the largest marine reserves on Earth and has lots of coconut crabs, making them easier to find and observe. ...
https://www.newscientist.com/articl...hobox&utm_source=Twitter#link_time=1510272034