This Is Why the Entire Internet Hates Crabs

today Steve and I were watching videos about crabs like these then of course we went into the comments section where we stumbled across some interesting comments I'll read them now I've never been so angry with crabs not until now fear not little turtle we died on crab legs all the time in your name imagine being a little ass crab just trying to make it when you see food running by and snatch it to feed your children and the next thing you know you're the most hated crustacean on the internet they're actually quite a lot of comments like that this begs the question why did the crabs get so much hay foreign this is Christmas Island a place where terrible things happen this small plot of land with an area of just 52 square miles is home to two endangered species of sea turtles green turtles and hawksbill Turtles who live together with more than 20 species of crabs but these neighbors don't exactly get along as soon as the baby turtles hatch from eggs they immediately rush to the water at this time they're the most vulnerable crabs hide in the sand to attack anyone who crawls past them their huge Pinchers simply don't leave the turtles any chance they end up as a snack for crabs who often eat their prey alive having a thing for the eyeballs now I'm starting to see why the internet reacts to them this way but the worst thing is that this happens not only on Christmas Island looks like crabs all around the world are ready to attack baby turtles because they're easy prey and even if the babies reach the water it does not mean they're safe the tidal waves push the Turtles back to the shore where well crabs are happy to meet them though this meeting will be their last there are even some statistics that say ghost crabs are recognized as the major predators of sea turtle eggs around the world true there isn't a lot of exact data on that but we can make certain conclusions from the fact that there's a heavy presence of ghost crabs on the beaches where Turtles Nest well and from their taste preferences as well but let's face the obvious being a newborn turtle is basically like choosing the hardest level in the game and skipping the tutorial your mom abandons you to your fate you first hatch from the egg without any help then dig yourself out of the sand and crawl towards the brightest spot assuming it's the light reflected off the sea though it could be some kind of Lantern on the coast at best you'll simply get lost at worst you'll end up as dinner for a cat a crab or a seagull the number of predators happy to eat a little turtle is simply huge and there are also enough of them in the sea by some estimates only one percent of turtles make it to adulthood but if this does happen the lucky ones can swim in the Seas for more than a century does this mean that crabs leave Turtles alone when they grow up huh crabs are not like that true they're no longer interested in Turtle eyeballs in any case that's not a priority Plains minutos crabs are too small to travel long distances on their own but apparently they want to travel anyway so they have to get creative crabs attach themselves to logs ship holes plastic junk or Turtles however swimming alone is not enough crabs are looking for a secluded place where they can find a mate and start breeding in case of turtles it's their butt rather a small area between the turtle's tail and its shell usually this space is perfect for a couple of crabs so we can say that Turtles promote monogamy among crabs without Turtles they like to change Partners these tiny crabs are quite peaceful if you want to see a real monster you should check out the blue crab no animal can match its aggressiveness in any case this is what people who often encounter Blue Crabs say actually these crabs aren't aggressive towards humans they'd rather hide when they're close but as soon as they get into the net find themselves in a bucket or in a boat they activate destroy everything in the way mode each pinch not only hurts but also damages and infects the skin their claws are pointed so they work like bacterial injections people who deal with blue crabs try to keep some sort of antibiotic at hand and of course such attacks leave scars on the skin the claws of blue crabs are designed like damn sharp wire cutters however don't think that blue crabs only take out their aggression on people who pull them out of the water they're just as willing to attack their brethren for example fiddler crabs blue crabs eat them I'm serious these cunning Crustaceans found a way to hunt at low tide although they don't usually hunt on land they dig down into the mud creating shallow water-filled pools and lie in weight any unsuspecting fiddler crabs looking for food after low tide and getting too close risk being ambushed that happens they become dinner even the only hunting strategy we know of who crabs have been known to lighter do you know what scientists say when they put a dead Crustacean in an aquarium with its living brethren bon appetit on the one hand this is nothing new many animals don't mind eating the dead members of their own species and don't exactly feel any shame after all a dead animal hardly need for example it's Limb and you can't say no to a snack in the wild but usually if there's a dead creature of your species around the one who killed it must be somewhere nearby too so cannibalism goes hand in hand with maximum caution but not when it comes to certain hermit crabs scientists did some experiments and found out that as soon as the remains of their dead relative appear in the water next to hermit crabs keep in mind they smell of death hermit crabs immediately begin to look for the source of this smell instead of hiding to avoid a predator nearby these guys are almost always enthusiastically looking for the corpses of other hermit crabs and happily eat them well such Behavior doesn't mean we have vicious cannibals here most likely it's caused by the lifestyle of hermit crabs and their constant struggle for shells they die much more often fighting each other than Predators which means that the one who smells of death won't put up much of a fight maybe there's even a chance to get a new house for free but you know what kind of creature really looks like it crawled out of someone's nightmare a coconut crab first this crustacean is gigantic it weighs up to nine pounds and has a leg span of up to three feet it's also a very strong animal capable of lifting objects the weight of a 10 year old kid honestly if a creature like this charged at me I'd scream and climb a tree not that it had helped though because coconut crabs are good at climbing there are cases where they climb trees to get into bird's nests no not even to eat eggs they preyed on the birds a coconut crab once broke a bird's Wing pushed it out of the nest then got down broke the second wing and after that other coconut crabs joined the party and well it was like a scene from a horror movie coconut crabs prey on large birds rats and members of their own species because well why not they attack in the dark and grab unsuspecting prey when it gets too close there are records of coconut crabs ambushing chickens and even kittens the Internet won't ever forgive them for that and given that this species can live up to 60 years can you imagine how many different creatures become its prey and don't forget how powerful the coconut crabs pictures are they often use them to crack coconuts and feast on the coconut meat but have you tried cracking a coconut without any tools it's actually hard scientists estimated that the Pinchers of an average coconut crab could generate a force of just over 1765 Newtons for reference the maximum human bite force is between 1100 and 1300 Newtons yes the difference seems to be small but the coconut crab's strength increases with its size when the animal reaches its maximum weight of nine pounds the strength of its Pinchers reaches 3 300 Newtons that's a lot and the worst thing is that the coconut crabs are perhaps the reason why we don't know anything about the fate of Amelia Earhart she was the first female pilot to fly across the Atlantic Ocean wrote a bunch of books and was generally considered very famous Earhart went missing while trying to fly around the world and the circumstances of her death are still unknown most likely she simply drowned in the Pacific Ocean but there's another quite creepy Theory back in 1940 researchers discovered a skeletal fragment on nikumaruru island that matched the description of Amelia Earhart perhaps she or her dead body ended up on this island whatever it was she could have been discovered by coconut crabs who find their prey by smell and then well then they ate her to test this Theory researchers conducted an experiment on a pig carcass back in 2007 and coconut crabs consumed its flesh very quickly they even pulled the bones apart so Earhart might have actually Fallen prey to these creatures now imagine what would happen if the coconut crabs were armed Kyle King was camping on the uninhabited island of kamaka in Japan when around 2 am he was awakened by a scratching sound near his tent what the guy saw then was a little disturbing because the coconut crab found a steak knife in his bag grabbed it and tried to escape a coconut crab with a knife a steak Knife am I the only one who finds this frightening seriously we're all Lucky this fella was disarmed in time actually the most likely reason is the smell the knife was used to cut meat and the coconut crab simply mistook it for a bone I hope not a human one though we have to admit coconut crabs actually like stealing stuff on Christmas Island one cunning crustacean stole a four thousand dollar camera from researchers while they were studying bats scientists admitted that coconut crabs often steal things like head torches or shoes if left unattended but stealing the camera seems like crossing the line and most importantly it's entirely unclear what to do about it it looks like scientists are ready to smear the equipment with hot sauce but what if the coconut crabs like it yet the chances to encounter this species aren't so great to really worry about it but from an ecological point of view crabs cause real problems not so long ago red king crabs were discovered near the Antarctic continental shelf although this place used to be too chilly for them but now the coastal Waters warmed up and nothing prevents the crabs from settling in and spreading devouring everything in their way climate change could also lead to the invasion of king crabs which will permanently destroy the Chile ecosystem this is really bad news for marine life like clams starfish and other soft-bodied organisms they're just not used to such Predators which means they'll end up as their dinner very quickly crabs are generally capable of becoming invasive animals and causing a lot of problems for example the European green crabs have it so good in New England they were listed among the 100 world's worst alien invasive species European green crabs multiply fast they're damn voracious aggressive to local species tolerant of temperature changes in short these are not the kind of guests you'd like to accidentally bring into your territory marine biologists call European green crabs probably the most successful invasive species in North America each such crab can eat 40 mussels a day and there are a lot of crabs and if their number will grow mussels will simply disappear and other similar animals along with them cold Winters used to keep the European green crab population in check but global warming ruined everything again it's simply impossible to get rid of crabs no wonder they're called The Cockroaches of the sea people use a number of strategies to fight the European green crabs mainly of course by catching and eating them but one company for example decided that the Cockroaches of the sea could be turned into good whiskey I agree that doesn't sound delicious even if you forget about the crab's nickname although connoisseurs have strong Liquors say the drink is quite all right well to eliminate any doubt that crabs and other Crustaceans are both amazing and damn scary creatures here's a fact cuttlefish deliberately mimic hermit crabs research conducted by Japan's University of ryukus revealed that Pharaoh cuttlefish act like hermit crabs and also lighten areas of their skin to achieve a visual resemblance and this is hardly a way to flatter Crustaceans or adopt their style most likely cuttlefish simply use this disguise in order to get closer to their prey scientists even estimated that the Cuttlefish that mimic hermit crabs caught twice as many fish compared to those who didn't though I think they do it only because the fish don't have internet if they watched all those videos about Crustaceans they'd swim as far away as they could in a blink of an eye see you later

Channel: WATOP

Views: 995,218

Keywords: WATOP, Wa Top

Id: QPY92Euo484

Length: 13min 47sec (827 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 17 2022