WEBVTT - Animalia Stupendium: The Coconut Crab

0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:09.800
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to blow your mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:18.799
<v Speaker 2>Welcome to Animalia Stupendium. My name is Algomandanes. Returned from

0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:23.840
<v Speaker 2>accidental imprisonment within the magic mirror of Moore, I am

0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:29.480
<v Speaker 2>as always your tireless creature chronicler. But mere monsters, of course,

0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:33.960
<v Speaker 2>hold no mystery for me these days. Dragons, our drab,

0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:37.839
<v Speaker 2>and even the specula fish in the mirror failed to

0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:41.800
<v Speaker 2>rouse me during my imprisonment, and so once more I

0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:46.000
<v Speaker 2>turn my attention to the strange fauna of a land

0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:51.320
<v Speaker 2>called Earth. Travel with me, gentle reader, as we consider

0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:54.680
<v Speaker 2>the mighty coconut crab.

0:00:55.040 --> 0:01:01.000
<v Speaker 3>Common name cocoanut crab scientific classification burgus, later, frequency and

0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:05.440
<v Speaker 3>range various islands of the Indian and Pacific Ocean, size

0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:10.800
<v Speaker 3>up to three feet or point nine meters across, diet fruit, nuts, seed,

0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:17.240
<v Speaker 3>and carrying treasure hoard none challenge raady two, also known

0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:22.240
<v Speaker 3>as the rabble crab. The cocoanut crab resembles nothing so

0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:27.080
<v Speaker 3>much as a gnarl disembodied claw. It is not a

0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:31.800
<v Speaker 3>true crab, but rather a giant terrestrial species of hermit crab.

0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:37.520
<v Speaker 3>As adults, however, they outgrow their need for pilfered shells

0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:44.120
<v Speaker 3>and instead develop a tough, leathery exoskeleton that provides ample

0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:50.120
<v Speaker 3>protection on their scattered island habitats. They are the largest.

0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:55.920
<v Speaker 2>Land living arthropod on earth. Nocturnal scavengers, the cocoanut crabs

0:01:55.960 --> 0:02:00.000
<v Speaker 2>spend the daylight hours in their rocky burrows and then

0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:04.040
<v Speaker 2>venture out in the dark to find morsels of fruit

0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:08.919
<v Speaker 2>or nut, including their namesake, the coconut, which they can

0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:13.960
<v Speaker 2>climb trees to obtain if need be. Meat, however, is

0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:18.760
<v Speaker 2>very much on the menu for these lumbering creatures, as

0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:22.680
<v Speaker 2>they'll gladly tear into carrion should they chance across it,

0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:29.000
<v Speaker 2>and shockingly, they may also even actively hunt living prey. Yes,

0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:33.760
<v Speaker 2>biologists have in fact observed them sneak attacking red footed

0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:37.040
<v Speaker 2>boobies in the night. No tree branch, it would seem,

0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:46.000
<v Speaker 2>is safe from their hunger stealth roll success. The cocoanut

0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:50.400
<v Speaker 2>crab benefits from great strength, with specimens able to lift

0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:55.040
<v Speaker 2>weights of thirty kilograms or sixty six pounds. And then

0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:58.800
<v Speaker 2>there are the claws to consider, capable of closing with

0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:03.480
<v Speaker 2>a force equal to eighty times the individual's own body mass,

0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:07.639
<v Speaker 2>indeed making it more than capable of breaking into a coconut,

0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:13.640
<v Speaker 2>as well as into the soft bodies of various birds, boobies, swallows,

0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:19.400
<v Speaker 2>or otherwise pincer damage. The coconut crab is understood to

0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:24.799
<v Speaker 2>be an evolutionary offshoot of the various hermit crab species.

0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:28.000
<v Speaker 2>This would have occurred some two point six to five

0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:32.000
<v Speaker 2>point three million years ago, perhaps due to changes that

0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:38.480
<v Speaker 2>robbed the robber crab here of its shelter options, forcing

0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:42.160
<v Speaker 2>it to grow larger and tougher in order to thrive

0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:47.120
<v Speaker 2>in a shell free terrestrial environment. Now, to be sure,

0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:51.760
<v Speaker 2>juvenile coconut crabs still make use of scaven shells, and

0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.200
<v Speaker 2>we must also note that while the adults live and

0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:57.920
<v Speaker 2>die on land and can never truly return to the ocean,

0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:01.320
<v Speaker 2>they still must release their eggs eggs into the water

0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:06.280
<v Speaker 2>in order to ensure the next generation of coconut crabs

0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:11.360
<v Speaker 2>in the ocean. The hatched free swimming shrimp like larvae

0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:18.040
<v Speaker 2>called Zoea disperse, clinging to bits of vegetation, even coconut husks,

0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:22.400
<v Speaker 2>for a period of several weeks before becoming equally free

0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:27.039
<v Speaker 2>swimming and shrimp like glaucothowe, which find suitable shells on

0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:31.800
<v Speaker 2>the seabed then they begin their march towards the various

0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:37.680
<v Speaker 2>islands that will serve their fully terrestrial, juvenile and adult forms,

0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:42.359
<v Speaker 2>an amazing journey. Humans never get to live as free

0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:47.039
<v Speaker 2>swimming larvae, I mean, except for us wizards in certain circumstances.

0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:51.719
<v Speaker 2>Of course, there are more mysteries concerning the coconut crab

0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:55.440
<v Speaker 2>to consider, But for now I must retire my wizard's

0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:59.960
<v Speaker 2>quill and allow my familiars some respite. But I shall,

0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:08.760
<v Speaker 2>I'll return with even more wonders of the natural world. Hi,

0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:11.320
<v Speaker 2>this is Robert Lamb. Thanks once more to the wizard

0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:15.440
<v Speaker 2>Argomannanes for joining us on the episode. Sources for it

0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:19.960
<v Speaker 2>included coconut crabs, the bird eating behemoth thriving on isolated

0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:25.000
<v Speaker 2>tropical islands by Emily Osterloff Natural History Museum, the San

0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:30.200
<v Speaker 2>Francisco Zoo, ruler of the atoll, the world's largest land

0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.960
<v Speaker 2>invertebrate by Mark E. Lydra Frontiers and Ecology in the Environment,

0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:40.080
<v Speaker 2>twenty seventeen. A mighty claw pinching force of the coconut crab,

0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.960
<v Speaker 2>the largest terrestrial crustacean by Oca at All Plos one

0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:48.000
<v Speaker 2>twenty sixteen. Pinching simulation of the coconut crab considering the

0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:51.159
<v Speaker 2>three D shape and internal characteristics of the robust claw

0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:55.839
<v Speaker 2>exoskeleton Inowey at All Results in Engineering twenty twenty five,

0:05:56.400 --> 0:06:00.719
<v Speaker 2>Status of the coconut crab Burgess latro in Neo by

0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:04.520
<v Speaker 2>a logi at All Pacific Community twenty fifteen, and to

0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:08.599
<v Speaker 2>a very limited extent, my own recent observations in Raasha ONMPAC.

0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.200
<v Speaker 2>Thanks as always to the excellent JJ Possway for producing

0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:16.720
<v Speaker 2>this episode. If you wish to contact Argomandanes with recommendations

0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:20.000
<v Speaker 2>for future episodes, you could send an email to contact

0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:26.040
<v Speaker 2>at stuff to Blow Your Mind dot com.

0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.039
<v Speaker 1>Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:31.919
<v Speaker 1>more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:34.840
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,