Holy Crab! Fearless Australian Poses With Massive Coconut Crab

Holy Crab! Fearless Australian Poses With Massive Coconut Crab

"To get nipped by one you need to be fairly slow."
02/07/2016 12:14 pm ET Updated Feb 09, 2016
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Mark Pierrot
Australian Mark Pierrot poses with an enormous coconut crab on Christmas Island.
You have heard of king crabs, now meet the mighty coconut crab.
An Australian man fearlessly posed with one of the large critters, going as far as to boost it up within the air, after stumbling upon a cluster of them on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean late final month.
"They give the impression of being scary however are mild giants, really. To get nipped by one you must be pretty gradual," Mark Pierrot, who's seen snapped within the photograph along Dolly Seashore, advised The Huffington Publish of his close encounter in an e mail.
Mark Pierrot
Pierrot wanted two fingers to elevate the crab, whose massive pincers are used for digging into coconuts.
Although the crabs, also referred to as robber crabs, might appear out of this world to many, they're quite bountiful on the island due to them being a protected species, permitting them to reside up to 70 years outdated, according to the island's tourism association.
In the course of that lifespan they will develop as much as 3 feet lengthy - from leg to leg - making them the largest land-dwelling arthropods on the planet, according to British wildlife resource, Wildscreen Arkive.
"Some robber crabs you can choose up with one hand however this man was pretty huge so two arms (have been) wanted," Pierrot mentioned. "It was fairly heavy, more than 5 kg (11 pounds) I reckon."
Mark Pierrot
Pierrot described the crabs as being plentiful on the island. A smaller one is seen here.
That's to not say that they aren't a pressure to be reckoned with.
The tree-climbers have pincers which can be strong sufficient to crack open coconuts. They will also carry weights as much as sixty two pounds, in line with Wildscreen Arkive.
They've even been blamed for carrying off the stays of legendary pilot Amelia Earhart after she vanished during a round-the-world flight in 1937. That eerie concept was recommended by researchers at The International Group for Historic Plane Recovery in 2012.
Still, Pierrot - who grew up on Christmas Island - finds them something however scary.
"I can see how people would find them creepy, however they're fairly timid creatures and it is humorous how much individuals are freaked out by them," he mentioned.
"I think it is a pastime numerous locals have had," he said of posing with them, "and I've handled them before so wasn't worried at all."
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