Crabzilla

Dear moonstruck:

This is your lucky day! Today I´ll take you to the paradisiac islands in the Pacific Ocean. So let´s pretend we go to Fiji, Zanzibar, Tahiti or Bora Bora, any of those fancy expensive stupidly beautiful islands. We get off the airplane or the boat or whatever kind of transport we took to get there and we just want to chill out in the sun with a beautiful ocean view and some pina coladas.

One of the islands where we can find our next creepy creature.

You may now wonder why I took you here, where are the monsters? Everything is so pretty and amazing, but wait, Oh, Oh! you just felt a big smash next to you, some kind of a mild earthquake. Something really big of about 4 kg just fell down from the palm. Afraid, you turn your head to see what´s behind and suddenly you see this massive creature, he looks back at you with his big bulging eyes, it´s the biggest terrestrial arthropod on earth: The Coconut Crab!

This terrestrial giant (Birgus latro) can grow up to 40 cm in lenght.

This massive terrestrial hermit crab is also known as palm thief, no wonder why he was trying to steal the coconuts of your next pina colada. Just as its name suggests he feeds on coconuts, he climbs all his way to the top and cuts off the coconuts to feed on them.  These clumpsy individuals often take the short way to get down the palm and let themselves free fall, making what we can literally call a crab rain. Nevertheless they survive unhurt this falls from over 4.5 m. What a superheroe!

Just like your dog, these crawling creatures have an excellent sense of smell, but instead of having a big goofy humid nose, they have specialized organs located in their antennae that help them detect odors from quite far away.  He will be able to detect the stinky smell of putrid garbage and be immediately attracted by it. I´ll give you an advice: Next time you take out your dirty old laundry be aware! because someone will be impatiently waiting for it.

The massive Coconut Crab (Birgus latro) is scavenging for some food in someone´s garbage can.

Aditionally, this Crabzilla also likes to feed on bananas, nuts, baby turtles and some dead animal bodies! What a perfect salad, Yummy... Not to forget he´s been documented eating human corpses, no wonder why he stars in the darkest corner of nature.

Last but not least, I´m afraid you won´t be able to sleep tonight! So I´ll tell you a little secret, this Crabzilla is not as invencible as it looks like. Have in mind that this though guy has some weaknesses.

• Unlike his marine crab cousins, the adult Coconut crabs can not tolerate being in the ocean for more than an hour, otherwise they would drown since they have lungs instead of gills.

• His populations are considered threatened by humans; they are hunted and cooked since their meat is considered to be a delicacy and an aphodisiac in some Asian countries.

• If you ever get stuck in this crab giant pincers, just as if he was a sweet little baby, try to tickle him on his softparts, without hurting him he will let you go. What a nice way to get off a prick like this guy.

Last advice my dearest moonstruck: Have in mind that The Coconut crab tends to be the star of quite a number of legends. With misterious natives names such as ayuyu, kumba or kaveu, native people are convinced dead people spirits return in the form of Coconut crabs. So I would never mess with these ancient spirits if I were you.

Have a gloomy creepy night.