When it comes to weird and terrifying sea creatures, giant crabs are the creepiest. However, there is another kind of giant crab living on land that technically wouldn’t make the list.
This creature is the coconut crab. Come to think of it, the fact that it lives on land probably makes it even more scary than its sea-dwelling cousins. It can terrorize you where you live.
The coconut crab is a species of hermit crab, but way bigger. They can grow to be up to 3 feet long, and weigh almost 10 pounds.
They’re also hearty creatures, and can live to be up to 60 years old.
The coconut crab gets its name from their love of eating coconuts.
They’re known to climb to the tops of coconut trees and cut down one or two coconuts.
They then climb back down and break the coconuts open with their claws, feasting on the delicious insides.
Eating coconuts may have earned these crabs their name, but it’s not their main source of food. They also dine of fruits, nuts, seeds, and a variety of other organic material if they come across it. I just hope that doesn’t include humans.
While they look pretty intimidating, coconut crabs are pretty docile creatures. They only use their claws when they’re in imminent danger.
Still, that doesn’t make them any less terrifying to look at.
Unlike their seafaring relatives, coconut crabs are completely adapted to life on land. They’ll drown if they’re submerged in water for too long.
The good news is that they only inhabit a very small part of the world. Coconut crabs can be found on islands around the Indian Ocean, and near parts of the Pacific Ocean.
Via: Wired
I’m normally not afraid of hermit crabs, but I might have to make an exception for their gigantic cousin that’s bigger than most lapdogs. Though they don’t bite, I’m sure I’d be scared to death if I came across one by accident in the wild…especially if I was picking coconuts.
