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Orange fiddler crab

Uca coarctata

Description:

Hundreds of these crabs along the tidal rivers and mud banks of the mangroves. Each male showing off a large right claw has two stalked eyes peering over. They are never far from a hole and with a wave of my hand, each inquisitive crab makes a rapid retreat. Females are without such a massive claw.

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3 Comments

MartinL
MartinL 10 years ago

Holding on to big weapons seems to be the cold war MAD philosophy. (Mutually Assured Destruction) . Seems to work for crustaceans.
Thanks Mark. Thanks Kauren

LaurenZarate
LaurenZarate 10 years ago

That is a CLAW with a bit of a crab attached!!

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 10 years ago

Very entertaining things. I remember spending hours watching hundreds of orange ones facing off against hundreds of blue ones in a Queensland estuary. One team would advance a bit, wait for those behind to move up, and start waving their big claws slowly in the air like flags. Then the other colour would do the same. I never saw any actual conflict; just group manouvering and posturing.

MartinL
Spotted by
MartinL

Cairns, Queensland, Australia

Spotted on Nov 28, 2013
Submitted on Dec 10, 2013

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