FREAKY FRIDAY!
These things are a bit ridiculous. As you can see from the bottom picture, they are huge. In fact, they are the largest land-living arthropod in the world. There are a lot of fun facts about them:
1. They eat coconuts, largely, hence their name.
2. They are sometimes called robber crabs because they are known to steal shiny objects from people's homes. Like pots and pans.
3. They can't breathe underwater, which is odd considering they are found on several islands spread over the Pacific (Bora Bora, Cook Islands, etc.)
4. They breath through a form of a lung -- a sign of something between a gill and a true lung.
5. In Tokyo, they are sold as pets.
Finally, their pinch supposedly terribly painful (not surprising) but since they scare easy, they don't release out of fear. So don't plan on getting pinched by one of these soon.
that is the scariest animal. ever.
ReplyDeleteDo people use them as a food source?
ReplyDeleteI don't think so...
ReplyDeleteIt boggles my mind that people would want them as pets.