Jo Wolfe, PhD: So the first one is my profile pic now. Because I TOUCHED A COCONUT CRAB 🦀🦀🦀 😍😍😍😭😭😭 #InverteFest at the fantastic Okinawa Churami aquarium!

So the first one is my profile pic now. Because I TOUCHED A COCONUT CRAB 🦀🦀🦀 😍😍😍😭😭😭 #InverteFest at the fantastic Okinawa Churami aquarium!

@kthehermit.bsky.social @crabspromenade.bsky.social

I'm glad see you are having fantastic days in Okinawa, and a nice coconut crab! 🦀

I was going to go to the place you suggested today, but it was raining 😭 I saw many other wonderful crabs though by tidepooling and diving. I want to come back and visit the Yaeyamas next time

*because today was my last day and I have to go home tomorrow 😭😭😭

Oh, that's a pitty😭 but I hope you'll have a chance to come back and explore Yaeyama Islands, which I believe to be the crab paradise in Japan🦀

😍

Because I've posted about covid/masks periodically, yes it was a risk to take these shots. The room was HUGE (same area as overhead of the whale shark tank) with very low density of people. I was masked in all public areas of the aquarium

And now I'm about 6 hours into what will be about 19-20 hours of this protocol

Not Katie, but I've just been/am still traveling around Asia. Also use the Aura, except basically don't remove (even the 30 hours to China). I drank water through a straw in the airplane washroom after flushing, or very isolated parts of the airport (5am or construction area)

Amazing! Was it gentle or was there a chance it could get aggressive?

This individual was extremely chill after the first couple of minutes. I was hanging out with/patting him for about an hour and he sort of wedged under my crossed legs after a while. I've experienced more aggression from most other crab species tbh

Aw now I want a coconut crab friend!

Okinawa is your best bet. They are extirpated from most places where there is human population. The reason they survive there is the park where they live is protected at night (they are nocturnal) The COOLEST spot is Christmas Island but it's wildly expensive to get to 😭

That is a big crab 🦀 if I seen that i wouldn’t know what that was. Now I know. It’s a Coconut crab.

Wow! Aren't those the ones that are incredibly strong?

Yes, the lead author of the paper is the same person who took this photo!

A Mighty Claw: Pinching Force of the Coconut Crab, the Largest Terrestrial Crustaceanjournals.plos.org Crustaceans can exert a greater force using their claws than many animals can with other appendages. Furthermore, in decapods, the chela is a notable organ with multifunctional roles. The coconut crab...

"During our field study [5–7], obtaining data for analysis was challenging, as the large claws of this crab pinched us on multiple occasions." That's dedication

Yep he told me exactly that!

Oh my, what a wonderful research article, thank you!! I wrote about coconut crabs in my book 'The Evolution Underground' for their amazing burrows, but neglected them in 'Life Sculpted' I covered shell-crushing crabs. Hoping to see one of these awesome animals some day!

Even though I've collected a lot of morphological data on them from museum specimens, I learned a ton by interacting with one

Lucky! What an amazing crustacean friend

My bff! He later decided my leg was a cave and tried to burrow under me, and I sat there stroking him like he was my own cat. A very hard cat

Crabs can be cats, too

Cats have legs, so do crabs Cats have claws, so do crabs Cats have eyes, so do crabs There are lots of similarities!

omg my son is obsessed with coconut crabs. Excited to show him this

Same, this was a big dream to meet one 😍

I'd never heard of them until he showed me the slide show presentation about them he gave to his 4th grade class.

LARGE LAD 😻

Jealous

I did not realize they looked so much like xenomorphs from behind. So cool. Also pinchy. But cool.

Yes the expansion of the cervical carapace is unique. It's how they offset no longer having a shell

*branchial region is really what's expanded

Did he make a very pleasing "clonk clack clonk" sound as he walked around?

Not much sound. The tips of the legs, which I'm feeling in the pic, are covered in setae

AWWWWWW FUZZY CRAB SOCKS 😻😻😻

I love that!

The last one lol “Don’t touch my butt! I’m gonna pinch ya!”

It really couldn't be bothered to try hard at pinching lol

LUCKYYYYYYYY AAAAAAAAAAAA

Not to bring the fomo but it's even more fun than it looks 😍

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Looks as fun as me collecting cicada nymphs and holding them as adults. Or poking toebiters. I scream at both.

So jealous. I love these guys. Supercrab!

Crab! Crab! Crab!

They're cute on their own, but I wouldn't want to be surrounded by them - I'm not keen to do an Amelia Earhart!

I do want to go to Christmas Island next

I've been to Australia, Tasmania and Japan, but never made it to Christmas Island. I'd love to go there some day myself, but more for the baby whale sharks that gather there every year.

Yeah I've been a lot of places in the general zone of the world, but that's an exceptionally difficult and expensive one

That's not entirely a bad thing - if it were more accessible it'd probably hurt it as a nature reserve. But for researchers it's one of those "if only I get the chance" places.

Yeah it's true!

I don't think they're likely to eat you while you're alive - and if you're already dead, well, why let good protein go to waste?

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