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Giant Crabs

That photo was in the Weird Whitstable article March 2013 - about an artists exhibition (and website)
 
Found by serendipity as usual; I was actually looking for zoologist Maurice Burton's article on the "Soay Beast," the huge turtle-like creature reported off the coast of Scotland. I'll take my monsters where I finds 'em!
 
A horde of giant spider crabs has amassed in waters near the Australian city of Melbourne.

Hundreds of thousands of the crabs migrate to Australia's southern shores each year as ocean waters cool.

Australian aquatic scientist Sheree Marris filmed an enormous gathering of the crustaceans in Port Phillip Bay.

Ms Marris said she hoped to raise awareness of the diversity of sea life in Australia's southern waters.

"Who would have thought something like this, that is so spectacular, could be happening in Australia on the southern shore," she said.

The exact reason for the behaviour is not known, but scientists speculate it is most likely to do with the process of moulting. ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-austr...us&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=news_central
 
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


img_1373-800x533.jpg

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
 
Giant coconut crab sneaks up on a sleeping bird and kills it


img_1373-800x533.jpg

The gruesome finale

Fuck. That.

I can remember reading two books about US Marines in the Pacific Theatre - Helmet for my Pillow and With the Old Breed - and I recall that one or both of them mentioned the author's horror for these primeval monster land crabs. I thought at the time, "What a girly! They're only crabs..." Now I see what he meant.

maximus otter
 
Fuck. That.

I can remember reading two books about US Marines in the Pacific Theatre - Helmet for my Pillow and With the Old Breed - and I recall that one or both of them mentioned the author's horror for these primeval monster land crabs. I thought at the time, "What a girly! They're only crabs..." Now I see what he meant.

maximus otter
And when you think of some of the other things that Sledge and Leckie must have witnessed - Sledge's aside about about his fellow marine throwing pebbles sticks with me to this day - these buggers must have made quite the impression.
 
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