Coconut Crab

If you think dat insular gigantism is a thing of the past, you would be very wrong. The coconut crab (Birgus latro) is a thing that can invade your nightmares. This crab can reach a total length of one meter (from one top a a leg to the other one). It can weigh about four kilograms. It lives on remote islands in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean.

The coconut crab has the same distribution as the original distribution of the coconut palm. Because the meat of this crab is very tasty, the species has been exterminated from islands where people live.

Adult coconut crabs feed primarily on fleshy fruits, nuts, seeds, and the pith of fallen trees, but they will eat carrion and other organic matter opportunistically. Anything left unattended on the ground is a potential source of food, which they will investigate and may carry away – thereby getting the alternative name of 'robber crab'.

The species is popularly associated with the coconut palm, yet coconuts are not a significant part of its diet. Although it lives in a burrow, the crab has been filmed climbing coconut and pandanus trees. No film shows a crab selectively picking coconut fruit, though they might dislodge ripe fruit that otherwise would fall naturally.

On these remote uninhabited islands the coconut crab has no natural enemies. The only potential predator is man himself. The result was that the crab could grow into an extremely large species.

That these coconut crabs even can attack a human in his or her sleep is not something that resides in the realms of impossibilities. Some think that the female pilot and adventurer Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) might have been forced to land her aircraft on Nikumaruro, a crab infested island during her final ill-fated flight on which she attempted to circumnavigate the globe.

Nikumaroro is situated in the western Pacific Ocean. Although occupied at various times during the past, the island is uninhabited today. Some theorise that Earhart and copilot Fred Noonan might have been eaten alive and their remains were then dragged into the burrows, reason why no trace of the pair has ever been found. Other claim that, because of the total lack of evidence, this theory is pure speculation.