The colorful giants of the tropics are thieves, and they're not picky.

Can you imagine a crab the size of a cat scuttling around your backyard, climbing up trees, and quietly sneaking away with your shiniest pots and silverware? No? Then perhaps you’ve never had the privilege of meeting a coconut crab.

These crabs are curious and unfussy. In addition to coconut flesh, fallen fruit, nuts, and seeds, they’ll eat the remains of dead rats, seabirds, and even their own kind. This has led to speculation that these giants may be partly responsible for the disappearance of famed aviator Amelia Earhart, who perished in the remote Pacific. Some researchers believe that her remains were eaten by coconut crabs, who then dragged away the bones.

  • Zip2
    55·
    7 months ago

    How the hell did they down the plane? Or know she was coming?

    Too many questions.

    • HossenfefferEnglish
      661·
      7 months ago

      How the hell did they down the plane?

      Crab to air missile. Standard.

      Or know she was coming?

      Craydar

      Too many questions.

      Are you shore? Don’t clam up, I shrimplore you: ask away and I shell try to answer them all.

    • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
      28·
      7 months ago

      Coconut crabs are heavy. Heaviest crab on earth. It also climbs trees, the most common is the coconut tree for which it is named. Those claws open coconuts like soft butter, which is specifically why they are called coconut crabs. So, with those details, here’s how a coconut crab hurt aviation history:

      A colony of crabs climbs a coconut tree. The weight of so many crabs that high in a tree causes the tree to lean, allowing more crabs to climb. Crab critical mass is reached and the tree, bent over like an arch, starts to lose crabs. Being crabs, they drag each other down as a crabalanche clears the palm of all but a lone coconut crab. The tree snaps back upright and hurls the lonely crab into the sky.

      Coconut crabs are unable to swim, so it had little choice but to struggle and grab at anything - like a low flying aircraft. Scared, lost, and cold, the crab frantically grabs at anything it can reach, but her aircraft is cloth covered wood spars. Frantic, clumsy claws punch holes in cloth and splinter wood. Amelia has no control as the plane tumbles to earth, splattering across the deserted islands below. She never stood a chance against the crabs.

      We got the crabs in the end though. When the South Pacific was chosen wasn’t the remoteness of the islands that gave us the perfect target to test nukes during the 50s; it was revenge.

  • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.caEnglish
    24·
    7 months ago

    But don’t let that put you off. While they will defend themselves if provoked, coconut crabs aren’t aggressive toward people. They have, however, earned the nickname “robber crabs” for their love of human-made objects, which they often drag away to their burrows for further inspection and, when possible, degustation.

    While they seem especially drawn to shiny pots and pans—probably because they smell like food—researchers and tourists have recorded the crabs carrying off everything from whisky bottles and sandals to expensive camera equipment.

  • Zip2
    5·
    7 months ago

    Do they taste like coconut too?

    • jordanlund@lemmy.world
      6·
      7 months ago

      Thank you for subscribing to Crab Facts:

      https://www.ranker.com/list/scary-coconut-crab-facts/jen-jeffers

      (Site is cancer on mobile)

      "Apparently, coconut crabs taste very similar to lobster or regular crab meat. The fat in the abdomen and the eggs inside the female are considered the most delicious parts, and they can be prepared by steaming or boiling them, preferably in coconut milk.

      Although the crab is not known to be poisonous, it is believed they can become toxic after eating certain plants for a long period of time. That said, they are generally not sold or eaten on a normal basis. In fact, eating a coconut crab on Christmas Island is a $5,500 fine."

      • _g_be@lemmy.world
        6·
        7 months ago

        eating a coconut crab on Christmas Island is a $5,500 fine

        So it’s strictly a to-go spot

  • Paragone@lemmy.world
    03·
    7 months ago

    Someone, possibly on reddit a few years ago, posted a B&W image showing what looked like her & her husband ( copilot on that flight ) in Japan.

    If she got there & lost her plane, then she’d be stuck there, right?

    Anyways, I’ve no copy of that image, & no interest in digging until I was somehow satisfied ( I don’t even know where I’d do digging, to get that one sorted out ).

    However, it seems possible & plausible, both.

    Aviation sometimes sticks you somewhere, long-term.