A coconut crab is a large terrestrial crustacean that is known for climbing coconut trees and eating you guessed it, coconuts!

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These are the largest arthropod in the world and likely near or at the upper limit of how large land crabs with exoskeletons can be. They not only look a lot like the common hermit crab only much larger, when they are juveniles they do in fact wear disposable shells just like hermit crabs do. They discard these shells for increasingly larger ones until they attain a size and tenure and no longer require them. Then they discard the borrowed shell, and their soft body part hardens and they no longer require the ‘house’ shell. Just look at those massive pinchers! They use those large pincher claws to crack-open coconuts, scrap and tweak out the coconut meat from the coconut, which they consume.

Coconut Crab On a Coconut

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The coconut crab is generally nocturnal, coming out only at night to forage for food. They are also called the ‘Robber Crab’ for their purported penchant of stealing shiny objects from porches, patios and tents. These may well be apocryphal accounts of misplaced or genuinely stolen items that seemingly just ‘go missing’ in the dark of the night and blamed on the cryptic doings of the coconut crab. Or perhaps the crabs do in fact mistake these items for food, removing them from where found and discarding them when they have lost interest in the potential food item. During the day they hide in burrows that they often have lined with coconut fibers, creating a nest of sorts which helps retain humidity within the burrow to prevent their bodies from drying out.

From Humble Beginnings, Large Crabs Grow

They begin their life as larvae on the ocean floor, swimming and floating free for about a month. Eventually they settle to the seabed, find & wear a suitable sized empty seashell and make their way towards the shore. There, they visit dry land only periodically. After about a month they will leave the ocean for good, mingling with genuine terrestrial hermit crabs and competing for the same resources. Here, they will quickly lose the ability to breathe water and become completely land-dwelling creatures. They will seek increasingly larger shells as their bodies grow, trading up for larger and more comfortable shells as increase in size. Some coconut crabs which are unable to find a suitably large-enough shell have even been reported to wear a broken coconut shell!  When they discard their last shell, their exoskeletons will fully harden and they no longer need this protection. They will now have a hard enough shell to protect themselves from most natural predators.

Details of the Coconut Crab

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It takes about four to eight years to reach maturity and reproduction age. These crabs are edible, and in some places where they co-exist with mankind there are regional extinctions of these amazingly large crustaceans. Conservation efforts to maintain these local populations exist such as minimum shell diameter for harvesting and no harvesting during mating season.

Close-up of a Coconut Crab

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Video of a Coconut Crab from YouTube

They Are Good to Eat Apparently

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Did you know that these crabs when small are sold on the pet trade in places like Tokyo, just like the common hermit crab? Gosh… I wonder what are the chances of somehow acquiring one, raising it as a singularly eclectic pet? The largest hermit crab I have ever seen was just a bit larger than the largest cantaloupe I have ever seen, if that gives you any idea how big hermit crabs can get. Well, this coconut crab would be at least double that size, or even one-third larger still!

A strong cage is required, one that they cannot pinch, claw or climb their way out of. They are very good climbers and the ability to crack coconuts gives them a pretty good ability to cut or climb their way to freedom.

Getting pinched by a coconut crab surely hurts and they probably won’t let go easily or quickly if frightened. There is a trick to induce the crab to relinquish its grip. –Tickling its underside lightly will allegedly cause it to relax it pincherhold. Myself, -I’d just rather not get pinched in the first place.

These crabs are edible, a delicacy in fact, with a flavor likened to lobster meat.  Although not poisonous, in different regions the coconuts crabs apparently eat certain local plants which contain mild toxins which need to be considered. It is believed that these plant toxins built up in the crab’s body may account for the reported aphrodisiac qualities that are said to come from eating this crab. The crab would have to be prepared expertly, cooked with ingredients which might lessen or eliminate the toxic effects, much the same way that including wasabi (Japanese horseradish) with sashimi  (raw sliced fish) or sushi (the rice-type including raw fish) helps to neutralize any toxic ill effects from the raw fish flesh.

This coconut crab soup looks savory and delicious but I think I’d rather not have any since the coconut crab is declining in numbers and this is because of habitat loss and of course, the threat from humans whom consume them to extinction.