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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff

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Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow

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Speaker 1: your Mind. My name is Robert lamp and I'm Joe McCormick,

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Speaker 1: and it's Giant Crabs time. That's right. We are continuing

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Speaker 1: our exploration of Christmas Island. And if you would, if

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Speaker 1: you're if you're asking yourself, white guys, where's Christmas Island?

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Speaker 1: What are you talking about? Well, then that means you

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Speaker 1: need to go back and listen to the episode that

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Speaker 1: published right before this one, because that one will explain

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Speaker 1: where Christmas Island is, what its whole deal is, what

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Speaker 1: the human history happens to be concerning Christmas Island. And

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Speaker 1: we go in depth about the red Crab of Christmas Island,

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Speaker 1: it's most singular and famous decabod inhabitant. Now it has

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Speaker 1: another decapod inhabitant that is by no means limited to

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Speaker 1: Christmas Island, certainly not to the extent that the Christmas

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Speaker 1: Island Red Crab is. And that other capad inhabitant is

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Speaker 1: the coconut crab or the robber crab, which is another

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Speaker 1: glorious clawed crustacean on in its own. Now I have

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Speaker 1: to admit even though, as we mentioned the previous episode,

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Speaker 1: there's virtually nothing Christmas Uba about Christmas Island other than

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Speaker 1: the fact that the guy who named it happened to

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Speaker 1: name it on Christmas Day. I think you decided, like

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Speaker 1: back in June, like, well when it when it's time

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Speaker 1: for Christmas, we're just going to talk about crabs. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's enough. It's enough of a reason for me, and

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Speaker 1: I have to admit that I keep um hearing the

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Speaker 1: Christmas song Christmas Island in my head. Is I'm thinking

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Speaker 1: about this east even Oh well it's it's I can't

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Speaker 1: remember who recorded it originally, but I think like Being

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Speaker 1: Crosby did a version of it. Leon Redbone a fabulous

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Speaker 1: version of it. Uh. And it of course is just

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Speaker 1: kind of this silly, cheesy song about weirdly about like

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Speaker 1: having some sort of an an ideal fantasy Christmas on

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Speaker 1: some distant island, but also some this whole bit about

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Speaker 1: how it's going to keep your woman from straying from you. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I didn't really notice this part of it until I

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Speaker 1: started reading the lyrics. But it's like you'll never stray

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Speaker 1: because it's gonna be Christmas every day, um, which which

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Speaker 1: is weird. But this reminds me of another another Christmas

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Speaker 1: song I listened to, made on purpose to be creepy.

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Speaker 1: There were a lot of creepy Christmas songs there was.

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Speaker 1: There was I've been listening to a lot of like

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Speaker 1: R and B, like old R, R and B kind

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Speaker 1: of Christmas songs and plays on one of the Soma

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Speaker 1: FMS channels, and there was one I was listening to

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Speaker 1: the other day and it had a similar thing that

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Speaker 1: was like, baby, You're never gonna leave me because when

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Speaker 1: with me it's Christmas every day. We seems like a

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Speaker 1: very bold promise to try and make to you know,

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Speaker 1: your your prospective girlfriend or wife. The nog never stops.

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Speaker 1: We will have eggnog every day. There will be a

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Speaker 1: tree alive Christmas tree in the house every day. It's

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Speaker 1: it's a high bar. I have a live in Santa

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Speaker 1: But it made me think, well, what if Christmas Island

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Speaker 1: was actually about Christmas Island? We may end up cutting this.

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Speaker 1: I don't know how to sound, but but I think

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Speaker 1: it would go something like this, How'd you like to

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Speaker 1: deck the holes with the deck of pods? How'd you

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Speaker 1: like to see a crab so big you'll worship it

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Speaker 1: as a god. If you ever spend Christmas on Christmas

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Speaker 1: side and you will never sleep, You'll probably weep when

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Speaker 1: robber crabs come for you. How would you like There's

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Speaker 1: another verse, how would you like to eat? Carry on

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Speaker 1: like the robber crabs do? How'd you like to see

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Speaker 1: them snip baked coconut? Directly in two? If you ever

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Speaker 1: spend Christmas on Christmas iland, you will never sleep, will

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Speaker 1: probably weep when robber crabs coming for you? Can I

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Speaker 1: applaud now? Yes you can. Again. We may cut that,

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Speaker 1: but hopefully it will become a standard. What do you

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Speaker 1: think is the longest period of unbroken singing that has

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Speaker 1: ever happened on this podcast before? Oh? I don't know,

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Speaker 1: probably from of when Julie Douglas was one of the hosts.

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Speaker 1: Oh did she sing? She she she did have a

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Speaker 1: knack for busting into show tunes. Well, oh wait, I

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Speaker 1: don't know if they were show tunes, but she did

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Speaker 1: have a knack for bursting into song. Well, I really

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Speaker 1: appreciate that this art you've just shared with and it

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Speaker 1: raises so many interesting questions, like how big would a

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Speaker 1: crab have to be before you worshiped it? As a god. Well,

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Speaker 1: if you look up a picture of the robber crab

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Speaker 1: or the coconut crab specifically, if it is next to

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Speaker 1: a human being or on something that you can you know,

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Speaker 1: have you know the size for like a garbage can. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: I gotta break your heart, Robert. There is a viral

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Speaker 1: image you've probably seen of a coconut crab or robber

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Speaker 1: crab on a garbage can. And unfortunately, in that image,

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Speaker 1: the garbage can is a smaller than average garbage can.

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Speaker 1: It's still a garbage can, but you're getting a little

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Speaker 1: bit of a skewed perspective. Okay, well, there I saw

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Speaker 1: a picture of it of one of these crabs fixed

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Speaker 1: to a tree next to Brian Cox. Not the actor

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Speaker 1: Brian Cox, what a shame, but be the science scientists

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Speaker 1: and science communicator Brian Cox. And I would say that

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Speaker 1: it looks big enough in that in that particular photo

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Speaker 1: to worship. Oh these things are plenty big. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: can see people worshiping. So okay, we we've mentioned several

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Speaker 1: times today we're gonna be talking about the coconut crab

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Speaker 1: or the robber crab. This is Burgess Latro and it

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Speaker 1: is the largest land dwelling arthropod on Earth, though technically

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Speaker 1: not a true crab. They are deca pod crustaceans, but

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Speaker 1: not a member of the infraorder brack Era, which is

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Speaker 1: what true crabs are. But if you don't tattle on us,

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Speaker 1: we can call them crabs today, right right, If hermit

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Speaker 1: crabs are called crab abs, I mean, they're not technically crabs,

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Speaker 1: but we call them crabs, coconut crabs, we can call

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Speaker 1: them crabs loosely referred to as crabs. And and even

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Speaker 1: in some of the you know, the more scientific literature

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Speaker 1: we're looking at here, they'll still just go ahead and

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Speaker 1: calm crabs, I notice. Yeah, So if it is the

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Speaker 1: largest land dwelling arthropod on Earth, how big is that? Right?

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Speaker 1: How big do you have to be? Well, a standard

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Speaker 1: adult robber crab is about one meter or about forty

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Speaker 1: inches measured from the tips of the legs. They can

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Speaker 1: weigh about four point five kilograms were almost ten pounds,

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Speaker 1: And that is a big arthropod to be on land,

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Speaker 1: right there. They're not the largest arthropod ever or overall,

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Speaker 1: the largest ever that we know about. It was probably J. Calopterus,

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Speaker 1: which is this extinct genus of C. Scorpion that probably

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Speaker 1: got about two point five meters long. These things were gigantic, terrifying,

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Speaker 1: wonderful extinct creatures. The largest today in terms of leg

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Speaker 1: span is the Japanese spider crab, which can in extreme

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Speaker 1: cases have a leg span of almost four meters, But

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Speaker 1: it's also kind of spidery with like big skinny legs,

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Speaker 1: So it's it depends on how you count size. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Like those big spider crabs, they kind of look like

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Speaker 1: they are the skeleton for a tent, right, It's like

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Speaker 1: they're they're in a contest to get measured biggest by

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Speaker 1: leg span alone. Uh So, I guess it all depends

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Speaker 1: on how you're measuring. But being the largest land dwelling arthropod,

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Speaker 1: I think is something very special on its own, because,

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Speaker 1: as we've often discussed psychologically, I think to us, the

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Speaker 1: sea is still very much that other world where strange

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Speaker 1: and unfamiliar life forms are expected. They're okay, right, It's

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Speaker 1: okay with you that there are sharks in the sea,

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Speaker 1: but if there were sharks on land, it would not

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Speaker 1: be okay with you. And the same is true for

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Speaker 1: large crustaceans. When you see a meter long decapod walking

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Speaker 1: around in your front yard, and you haven't grown up

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Speaker 1: around creatures like this, you may feel you've been transported

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Speaker 1: to an atomic age monster movie, like something is wrong,

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Speaker 1: you know. I realized that people who live close to

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Speaker 1: um to to the sea and are around crabs, they

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Speaker 1: may be more used to finding the occasional crab indoors,

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Speaker 1: the occasional land crab walking around in their house. I

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Speaker 1: always still when it happens to me, like if on

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Speaker 1: vacation somewhere and a crab is in the house, it

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Speaker 1: is an exciting and special treat. And and I have

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Speaker 1: to say that when my wife and I went on

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Speaker 1: our honeymoon to yu Lapa, Mexico, just a little island,

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Speaker 1: so again, uh the kind of place where land crabs

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Speaker 1: have a field day. And indeed, our our our journey

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Speaker 1: there seemed to time nicely with uh this surge of

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Speaker 1: tiny land crabs that were just walking all over the place.

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Speaker 1: And since we were staying in this kind of hut

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Speaker 1: type structure that was right on the beach, during the night,

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Speaker 1: crabs would be all over the floor to the to

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Speaker 1: the point where you had to be careful where you

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Speaker 1: were stepping because you might step on a crab if

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Speaker 1: you're watching, and you know, they can't actually climb up

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Speaker 1: into bed with you or anything. But it was still, uh,

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Speaker 1: it was quite a crazy environment to find myself in. Wait,

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Speaker 1: how did you prevent them from getting in bed with you? Well,

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Speaker 1: they just didn't. They didn't seem like they were really climbers.

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Speaker 1: The crab we're talking about here today, the coconut crab

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Speaker 1: um again not a true crab heck of a climber.

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Speaker 1: But these particular crabs, they I never saw them climb anything.

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Speaker 1: They would they would come in under the doors and

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Speaker 1: they would sort of come in through cracks in the

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Speaker 1: wall and then fall down onto the floor and then

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Speaker 1: keep crawling, but they never tried to make it up

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Speaker 1: the bed. What a shame. The same huts, I should

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Speaker 1: mention also some of them had lost some plastic screening

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Speaker 1: up around the top, which permitted fruit bats to come

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Speaker 1: in and eat fruit and poop onto into onto the

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Speaker 1: floor of the hut. But we didn't have to worry

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Speaker 1: about that in ours. Wow. Okay, okay, So back to

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Speaker 1: back to Bergas Latro. Now. The last time we talked,

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Speaker 1: we talked primarily about the Christmas Island red crab, which

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Speaker 1: is mostly just Christmas Island and another small island group.

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Speaker 1: But the this this crab like animal, this decapod, crustacean

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Speaker 1: we're talking about today, the king of crabs is not

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Speaker 1: just confined to Christmas Island, though it is very numerous

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Speaker 1: on Christmas Island. Yeah, they're found throughout the tropical islands

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Speaker 1: of the Pacific and Indian Ocean. But but Christmas Island

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Speaker 1: has the largest population by far. And as I mentioned,

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Speaker 1: they are excellent climbers, mostly though, to escape the any

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Speaker 1: dangers or threats that they're not crazy about if they're

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Speaker 1: nowhere near a borough. Now here's a question, what is

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Speaker 1: the danger or threat to the world's largest terrestrial arthropod. Well,

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Speaker 1: my understanding is that the major threat, of course is humans,

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Speaker 1: which we'll get into in a bit. Though on the

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Speaker 1: other side, we have to say that the the Christmas

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Speaker 1: Island population of coconut crabs or robber crabs, it's also

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Speaker 1: the best protected population of of of robber crabs in

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Speaker 1: the world. So, you know, it's Christmas Island as always,

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Speaker 1: it's this it's this mix of humans really mess that

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Speaker 1: one up. And then the same time there's some great

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Speaker 1: examples of humans really trying to get it right. Uh. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: well we will talk in a little bit about using

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Speaker 1: them for meat and for their oil. Um. But yeah, so,

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Speaker 1: so how do they survive on Christmas Island specifically? Well, um,

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Speaker 1: we we mentioned in the last episode about the danger

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Speaker 1: that the automobiles pose as well as trains pose to

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Speaker 1: the smaller Christmas Island red crab. But according to the

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Speaker 1: Australian Department of Environment and Energy, between two thousand and

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Speaker 1: ten and two thousand twelve, some two thousand coconut crabs

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Speaker 1: died on the roads of Christmas Island. They kept track

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Speaker 1: of the fatalities and they actually posted fluorescent pink circles

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Speaker 1: by the roadside drew a mind motorists to drive carefully. Now.

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Speaker 1: I think we've mentioned that the coconut crabs are relatives

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Speaker 1: of the hermit crabs, and if you see them, they

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Speaker 1: almost kind of look like gigantic hermit crabs. But what

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Speaker 1: we know is that hermit crabs will claim shells that

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Speaker 1: they find in their environment and inhabit them as protection.

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Speaker 1: Do uh do do we see anything like that in

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Speaker 1: the in the rubber crab or the coconut crab. Not

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Speaker 1: in the adults. So the adults don't use shells at all.

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Speaker 1: They're beyond that. Instead, the abdomen is is tucked partially

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Speaker 1: underneath the body, and they have a series of hardened

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Speaker 1: plates that provide covering along with the bruskley tufts of

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Speaker 1: skin along the rest of the abdomen. On my own shell, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, what would they even climb inside football helmets?

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Speaker 1: But Fate whispers to the warrior, a shell is needed.

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Speaker 1: The warrior whispers back, I am the shell. What is

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Speaker 1: that from? No, it's some saying that's in It's in

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Speaker 1: like one of the Mission Impossible movies. It's on T

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Speaker 1: shirts and stuff. It's one of those like no fear

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Speaker 1: T shirt slogans. It's on T shirts. You say, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I don't know where it originally. Are you saying it

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Speaker 1: should be in our T shirt shop accessible via stuff

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Speaker 1: to put your mind? No, I don't think so, just

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Speaker 1: throwing it out there. Okay. So, even though the adults

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Speaker 1: don't use the shells, juvenile coconut crabs do seem to

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Speaker 1: employ the shell method of hermit crabs for protection, But

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Speaker 1: the juveniles are hard to observe because they are often burrowed.

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Speaker 1: That's a similar to what we saw with the red

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Speaker 1: crabs of Christmas Island. Like the the younger crabs, the

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Speaker 1: ones that have not reached adulthood yet, they're going to

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Speaker 1: try and just stay out of the thick of it

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Speaker 1: until they're they're they've reached the appropriate size and um,

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Speaker 1: the adults incidentally, they mold underground and special burrows, so

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Speaker 1: they'll they'll they'll just dig down into this kind of

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Speaker 1: spherical chamber and that's where they'll do all their molting

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Speaker 1: and then they'll come back up. Now, coconut crabs are

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Speaker 1: mostly sort of a deep blue in color, and they

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Speaker 1: tend to look kind of you see footage of and

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Speaker 1: they look kind of like brown fish, but you'll see

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Speaker 1: kind of bits of blue. Sometimes there's a tinge of

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Speaker 1: red in places. It becomes kind of like a weird

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Speaker 1: off purple. Yeah. And then of course they have claws.

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Speaker 1: They have a large left claw a smaller right claw,

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Speaker 1: and it's kind of hard to pick up on the

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Speaker 1: size differential when you're just looking at them unless you

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Speaker 1: look closely, I find uh. But then they have two

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Speaker 1: pairs of long walking legs and a smaller pair of

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Speaker 1: appendages that are used for mating and egg manipulation. Now

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Speaker 1: these are land crabs, so do they have anything to

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Speaker 1: do with the water. Well, we see a some more

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Speaker 1: situation as with the the the the red crabs that

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Speaker 1: we talked about in the last episode. So they have

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Speaker 1: only the stigial gills and they'll actually drown if left

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Speaker 1: in water for more than an hour. The guilt tissue

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Speaker 1: is given over to a highly vascular what I often

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Speaker 1: I've seen described as lung tissue with lung in quotation marks,

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Speaker 1: but for for land lubber breathing. Yeah, these are land crabs.

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Speaker 1: These are the crabs of the forests. All right, let's

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Speaker 1: take a quick break and when we come back we

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Speaker 1: will discuss Charles Darwin's encounters with the coconut crabs. Than alright,

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Speaker 1: we're back. So you know, Charles Darwin himself wrote about

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Speaker 1: coconut crabs in his eighteen thirty nine work The Voyage

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Speaker 1: of the Beagle. This was in his chapter on Keeling Island.

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Speaker 1: What was known as Keeling Island then, I think it's

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Speaker 1: also now known as the Coke Coasts Islands or Territory,

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Speaker 1: which is another group of islands in the Indian Ocean.

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Speaker 1: And so Darwin's observations were interesting. He starts by writing, quote,

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Speaker 1: I have before alluded to a crab which lives on

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Speaker 1: the cocoa nuts. It is very common. I love he

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Speaker 1: hyphenates cocoa nuts. It is very common on all parts

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Speaker 1: of the dry land, and grows to a monstrous size.

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Speaker 1: It is closely allied or identical with the beer ghost Latro,

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Speaker 1: so he basically he's already talking about the same animal. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The front pair of legs terminate in very strong and

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Speaker 1: heavy pincers, and the last pair are fitted with others

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Speaker 1: weaker and much narrower. It would at first be thought

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Speaker 1: quite impossible for a crab to open a strong cocoa

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Speaker 1: nut covered with the husk, but Mr Leask assures me

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Speaker 1: that he has repeatedly seen this affected. The crab begins

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Speaker 1: by tearing the husk fiber by fiber, and always from

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Speaker 1: that end under which the three eye holes are situated.

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Speaker 1: When this is comple leaded, the crab commences hammering with

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Speaker 1: his heavy claws on one of the eye holes till

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Speaker 1: an opening is made, Then turning around its body by

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Speaker 1: the aid of its posterior and narrow pair of pincers,

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Speaker 1: it extracts the white albuminous substance. I think this is

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Speaker 1: as curious a case of instinct as I have ever

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Speaker 1: heard of, and likewise of adaptation and structure between two

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Speaker 1: objects apparently so remote from each other in the scheme

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Speaker 1: of nature as a crab and a coconut tree. Maybe

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Speaker 1: I'm missing something, But I honestly don't see what he

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Speaker 1: thinks is so strange about that the crab is a

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Speaker 1: creature of the dark, infernal depth, and the coconut is

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Speaker 1: is the fruit of heaven. I don't know one is

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Speaker 1: one is high the other low. I mean, because one

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Speaker 1: of the things I'm at it when you look at

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Speaker 1: a coconut crab, I mean it kind of looks like

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Speaker 1: a coconut. Yeah, yeah, that is strange. I mean, I'm

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Speaker 1: not saying like Darwin is dense here. Obviously, you know,

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Speaker 1: his insights about nature are usually pretty interesting, even when

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Speaker 1: he's wrong. Uh, I'm not. I'm not seeing what's so

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Speaker 1: strange about that. That seems like a very natural kind

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Speaker 1: of relationship. But I don't know. Maybe we're just used

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Speaker 1: to thinking post star winning and thoughts about this kind

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Speaker 1: of thing. And I'll have a little more on coconut

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Speaker 1: crabs eating coconuts. A little later on in the episode,

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Speaker 1: Oh yes, yes, uh so, he points out a few

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Speaker 1: other things. He says that the crab is active in

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Speaker 1: the daytime, but every night it goes to the sea

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Speaker 1: to moisten it skills. And this seems contradicted by modern

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Speaker 1: reports in which I've read that the coconut crab is

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Speaker 1: not exclusively nocturnal, but it likes nocturnal activity sort of

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Speaker 1: prefers it, right, This is what I read too, that

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Speaker 1: it it will come out at night, but it also

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Speaker 1: it will come out if it's a cloudy day. And

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Speaker 1: it also it's very I think an environmentally informed. So

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Speaker 1: the coconut crab is living in an area where humans

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Speaker 1: or say dogs or whatever are going to mess with it,

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Speaker 1: that might impact how often it comes out. But if

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Speaker 1: they have free range and they're just gonna do whatever,

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Speaker 1: So yeah, it sounds like his report could be wrong. Here.

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Speaker 1: He says they live in burrows, that they dig under

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Speaker 1: the roots of trees, and that they make beds in

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Speaker 1: their burrows out of the fibers of husks that they

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Speaker 1: tear from coconuts. And I have I I have looked

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Speaker 1: for modern evidence of that I have not found that

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Speaker 1: anything about that. I didn't run across it either. I

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Speaker 1: certainly ran across observations that you will find like shredded

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Speaker 1: bits of coconut husk in areas where the crabs live,

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Speaker 1: but I think that is probably due to what they

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Speaker 1: do to coconuts and not any kind of like nesting ritual. Yeah. Interesting. Uh.

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Speaker 1: If anybody out there knows of any evidence of that,

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Speaker 1: we would like to see it. Also Darwin on eating

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Speaker 1: the largest terrestrial arthropod, quote, these crabs are very good

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Speaker 1: to eat. Moreover, under the tail of the larger ones

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Speaker 1: there is a massive fat which, when melted, sometimes yields

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Speaker 1: as much as a quart bottle full of limpid oil.

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Speaker 1: He relays reports that the robber crabs climb up trees

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Speaker 1: to get coconuts, but doubts this is true. Other reports

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Speaker 1: say that they live only on the nuts that have

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Speaker 1: already fallen to the ground. And uh. And he also

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Speaker 1: says quote to show the wonderful strength of the front

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Speaker 1: pair of pincers, I may mention that Captain Morrisby can

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Speaker 1: find one in a strong tin box which had held biscuits,

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Speaker 1: the lid being secured with wire, but the crab turned

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Speaker 1: down the edges and escaped. In turning down the edges,

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Speaker 1: it actually punched many small holes quite through the tin. Uh.

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Speaker 1: So we must return to the subject of these tin

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Speaker 1: piercing claws in a bit now. As a side note,

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Speaker 1: I so, I was trying to find if there was

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Speaker 1: any evidence of the coconut crabs making husk beds in

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Speaker 1: their in their nests, and I kept I was googling

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Speaker 1: things like do coconut crabs make uh nests of coconut

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Speaker 1: husks or something? But every time I typed do coconut

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Speaker 1: crabs make Google wanted to auto complete Do coconut crabs

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Speaker 1: make good pets? What is wrong with this world? Why

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Speaker 1: is that what it's telling me to look up? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I didn't. I did not research anything about keeping them

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Speaker 1: as pets, but it seems like they would seem like

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Speaker 1: a good idea. I mean, for one thing, they're just

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Speaker 1: a larger creature that seems like it needs to roam

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Speaker 1: around and live a fairly nomadic lifestyle. On the other hand,

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Speaker 1: there there are varieties of hermit crabs that it seemed

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Speaker 1: to be more established as pets. Um not every species,

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Speaker 1: but a few particular species. They given the tin box story,

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Speaker 1: it seems like they might be a little bit hard

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Speaker 1: to confine. Yeah, and yeah, and then the other thing too.

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Speaker 1: When I first saw them, the footage I foresaw of

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Speaker 1: them in that that documentary we talked about, they look

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Speaker 1: like brown fly covered um carrying gobblers. So I'm not

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Speaker 1: sure to what extent that you see that and you're like, yes,

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Speaker 1: I want one of those in my house. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mean they, like many crabs, they are opportunistic omnivores. So

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Speaker 1: even if they do in a way specialize in coconuts,

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Speaker 1: they also, uh, they will eat carry in I think

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Speaker 1: we already mentioned that, right. Yeah, they are into meat

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Speaker 1: when they can get it, even weird sources of meat

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Speaker 1: you might not expect. In fact, there there are viral

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Speaker 1: videos of them. I don't know if this is common.

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Speaker 1: It seems like this is probably not super common, but

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Speaker 1: there there have been videos posted on the internet of

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Speaker 1: these crabs like attacking and killing live animals, like live birds. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I was looking at one of these as well. The

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Speaker 1: cut of it, at least that I saw, I was

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Speaker 1: unclear exactly how they came counter one another. Yes, that's

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00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:31,119
Speaker 1: a very good point. It cuts in in the middle

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Speaker 1: of their encounter, so it could be that the bird

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Speaker 1: attacked the crab or they just stumbled into each other

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Speaker 1: by accident. So I wouldn't want to imply that the

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Speaker 1: crabs are like hunting the birds, but clearly if if

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Speaker 1: they were given the chance, they would they would kill

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Speaker 1: and eat a bird. Yeah, um, yeah, they're pretty fierce

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00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:49,480
Speaker 1: creatures in fact that they have no natural predators other

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Speaker 1: than themselves and of course Charles Darwin if he's trying

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Speaker 1: to eat one. But you know, on Christmas Island, they

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00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:00,760
Speaker 1: reside almost in all corners of the vi nament. They

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00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:03,520
Speaker 1: will certainly shelter under tree roots, as we mentioned, but

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00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:07,760
Speaker 1: they also use like small caves, crevices, hollow logs and

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Speaker 1: just earth burrows, especially for that molten practice I was

408
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Speaker 1: talking about. And uh, and like we we've said, they

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Speaker 1: will generally stay out of sight during the day and

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Speaker 1: head out to forage at night, but also on overcast days.

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Speaker 1: And it does seem to also depend upon uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: what's going on in the local environments. You know, winter humans,

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00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:30,600
Speaker 1: about winter competitors about. They seem nomadic, but may return

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Speaker 1: to a specific burrow and may need to return to

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00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:35,640
Speaker 1: the sea to drink water in order to obtain um

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00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:38,560
Speaker 1: osmotic balance from time to time. This is something that

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00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:42,399
Speaker 1: the Darwin actually touched on, and on larger islands they

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Speaker 1: seem to remain in the same area for exterior extended

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00:22:45,040 --> 00:22:49,200
Speaker 1: periods of time. Not sightseers. Yeah, they're not really really sightseers.

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Speaker 1: Now what do they forage for? Well, they love vegetable material,

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Speaker 1: the fruits of various trees and the pith of fallen

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Speaker 1: orange of palms. But they also tear into some carry on,

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Speaker 1: as we've been been been discussing, and they have a

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Speaker 1: great sense of smell to aid in these hunts. One

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Speaker 1: diet fact I came across is that apparently it is

426
00:23:08,040 --> 00:23:11,439
Speaker 1: true that they've got a very crafty strategy for not

427
00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:16,600
Speaker 1: wasting energy after they molt, they eat their own discarded exoskeletons. Well,

428
00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:19,680
Speaker 1: that's just that's just common sense right there. Right, So,

429
00:23:19,800 --> 00:23:22,119
Speaker 1: I mean, who out there picks their dead skin and

430
00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:28,640
Speaker 1: doesn't eat it too much? For you? Now, Robert shifted

431
00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:31,480
Speaker 1: over to primates, and now you're like, no, I won't

432
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:36,560
Speaker 1: take it um alright. So one thing that's probably um

433
00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:39,080
Speaker 1: come to some of your minds out there, is Okay,

434
00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:41,680
Speaker 1: the link between the coconut and the coconut crab is

435
00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:45,160
Speaker 1: pretty obvious. But we've also referred to them as robber crabs.

436
00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:48,239
Speaker 1: Where does that moniker come from? I was wondering about that.

437
00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:50,000
Speaker 1: Do they do they have like a little like a

438
00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:53,960
Speaker 1: bandit mask kind of coloration or something? No, but what

439
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,800
Speaker 1: I read is that they will obsessively carry off any

440
00:23:56,840 --> 00:24:00,359
Speaker 1: foreign object they come across, including pots and still aware

441
00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:05,399
Speaker 1: from camps, and thus they're no as robber crabs. Now,

442
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:08,040
Speaker 1: these these uh, these crabs will live for quite a while.

443
00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:10,119
Speaker 1: I've read that they may live up to fifty years.

444
00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:13,880
Speaker 1: I've also seen between thirty and forty, but longevity may

445
00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:16,520
Speaker 1: exceed fifty years. All right, So I want to come

446
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:20,199
Speaker 1: back to a Darwin question. Darwin reports him and his

447
00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:22,840
Speaker 1: friends and Captain Moresby and all these people, they think

448
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:25,480
Speaker 1: these things are pretty good to eat. They produce tasty oil,

449
00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:28,439
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. Is that? I mean, are

450
00:24:28,480 --> 00:24:31,040
Speaker 1: there people who still eat these things? Well? I was

451
00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:34,680
Speaker 1: reading a bit about this in Coconut Crabs by Warwick J. Fletcher,

452
00:24:35,040 --> 00:24:37,560
Speaker 1: and he points out that they are quite edible despite

453
00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:40,600
Speaker 1: their appearance as a large, you know, slightly grotesque fly

454
00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:43,640
Speaker 1: covered scavenger, and he wrote that the crabs and many

455
00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:49,000
Speaker 1: Indo Pacific cultures are are ceremonial importance for weddings, and uh,

456
00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:53,320
Speaker 1: they're they're attributed with afrodes act qualities. And there are

457
00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:56,240
Speaker 1: also pretty easy to catch. Is the other thing. You know,

458
00:24:56,280 --> 00:25:00,000
Speaker 1: if a human wants to eat a coconut crab, they

459
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:02,919
Speaker 1: and do it. I don't know about fast moving yeah,

460
00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:04,320
Speaker 1: and I don't know about you, but when I was

461
00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:07,359
Speaker 1: looking around for footage of them, I inevitably found some

462
00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:10,720
Speaker 1: reality show about like a naked guy in an island

463
00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:13,639
Speaker 1: that ends up did not find that killing and um

464
00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:16,320
Speaker 1: and grilling and eating a coconut crap? Is it that

465
00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:18,719
Speaker 1: TV show about putting a naked guy in the woods.

466
00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:20,439
Speaker 1: I believe it is. I mean, I don't know how

467
00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:24,000
Speaker 1: many shows with that description exist. You'd be shocked, but

468
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:25,919
Speaker 1: it is at least one of them. No, that was

469
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:28,440
Speaker 1: the primite it was, like I think it was. It's

470
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:31,240
Speaker 1: had the word naked in the title. I think it

471
00:25:31,320 --> 00:25:34,520
Speaker 1: was Discovery who did it too well. At any rate,

472
00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:37,680
Speaker 1: they're they're easy to catch. If you're an established hunter,

473
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:39,320
Speaker 1: you can do it, and if you're just some naked

474
00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:42,240
Speaker 1: reality TV star you also have a pretty good shot

475
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:45,399
Speaker 1: at catching one and eating it. Uh. But but this

476
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:47,959
Speaker 1: is unfortunate in some areas because it has pushed them

477
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:51,560
Speaker 1: to the point of extinction in some parts of the world. Now,

478
00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:54,199
Speaker 1: an interesting theory that Fletcher points out is that you

479
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:58,240
Speaker 1: look at their distribution, um, you know, on these various islands,

480
00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:02,119
Speaker 1: and it roughly matches the atribution of coconut palm, leading

481
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:05,600
Speaker 1: some to theorize that the coconut palm may have been

482
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:09,480
Speaker 1: its means of migration, Like, how does that work? Well,

483
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:11,280
Speaker 1: the way I'm imagining he didn't really go into a

484
00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:13,600
Speaker 1: lot of detail on this is I'm guessing they they

485
00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:17,879
Speaker 1: arrived on like floating on bits of the tree or

486
00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:23,040
Speaker 1: perhaps coconuts themselves. Yeah, that's interesting, and I should point

487
00:26:23,040 --> 00:26:26,040
Speaker 1: out they are common only on island habitats where they

488
00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:29,359
Speaker 1: typically don't have to compete with as many terrestrial organisms.

489
00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:31,480
Speaker 1: I mean, that's I think that's one they don't do

490
00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:34,320
Speaker 1: well where there are tigers or something. Yeah, well, it's

491
00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:36,679
Speaker 1: it comes back to the you know, the beauty of

492
00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:40,360
Speaker 1: an isolated island environment, right that you can you can

493
00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:43,879
Speaker 1: have certain organisms really go wild in ways that they

494
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:47,359
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to do elsewhere in the world. Okay,

495
00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:48,919
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna take another break, and when we

496
00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:52,640
Speaker 1: come back, we'll ask the burning question, was Darwin right?

497
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:56,280
Speaker 1: Can they actually open coconuts with their claws? We'll find out.

498
00:26:57,359 --> 00:27:02,080
Speaker 1: Thank alright, we're back, all right, Robert. I bet you

499
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:06,480
Speaker 1: have seen videos of humans trying to open coconuts. It

500
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:10,119
Speaker 1: often seems to require something like a machette, Like you

501
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,360
Speaker 1: need a very strong tool and some leverage to get

502
00:27:13,359 --> 00:27:16,640
Speaker 1: a coconut open, because these are these are hard nuts. Yeah,

503
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:19,520
Speaker 1: I I mean, have you ever tried to open a coconut? No?

504
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:21,720
Speaker 1: I haven't. It's it's it's can be a bit difficult.

505
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:25,000
Speaker 1: We we purchased one. I purchased one for the first

506
00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:28,080
Speaker 1: time in the last year or two because my son

507
00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:30,320
Speaker 1: like really wanted to eat one, and so I bring

508
00:27:30,359 --> 00:27:33,200
Speaker 1: it home and then I'm like buster on the rest

509
00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:35,479
Speaker 1: development I have to ask, like, how do you eat one?

510
00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:39,160
Speaker 1: I have to like do YouTube search, how do I

511
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:41,720
Speaker 1: open a coconut? How do I prepare it? And uh?

512
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:45,439
Speaker 1: And there are several steps involved. Um so, yeah, these

513
00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:49,880
Speaker 1: are these are robust uh nuts there, they are difficult

514
00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:52,320
Speaker 1: to crack. This is something that it falls from a tree.

515
00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:53,800
Speaker 1: And hits you on the head. It can kill you.

516
00:27:55,600 --> 00:28:00,440
Speaker 1: So the the relationship between the coconut crab and the coconut.

517
00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:05,240
Speaker 1: This is apparently an area of some controversy because because

518
00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:07,320
Speaker 1: despite the fact that this is where they get their name,

519
00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:09,600
Speaker 1: uh you know, in the fact that we have all

520
00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:14,200
Speaker 1: these stories about them opening coconuts, we have a lot

521
00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:17,600
Speaker 1: less in the way of definitive proof. So a Fletcher

522
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:21,600
Speaker 1: that Warwick J. Fletcher I mentioned earlier, he points out

523
00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:26,320
Speaker 1: some of the more believable of the ideas regarding coconut

524
00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:29,920
Speaker 1: crabs opening coconuts. The first is that the crab first

525
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:34,400
Speaker 1: de husks the coconut and then the stringy fibers, pulls

526
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:37,560
Speaker 1: off the stringy fibers, and then climbs up the tree

527
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:39,920
Speaker 1: with it and then drops it to bust it open.

528
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:44,440
Speaker 1: This does not seem to be um a popular theory

529
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:46,000
Speaker 1: like this doesn't seem to be one that a lot

530
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:47,480
Speaker 1: of people are really putting a lot of stock in

531
00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:50,520
Speaker 1: because it sounds crazy, right, the idea that the crab

532
00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:53,640
Speaker 1: would take the coconut, and despite being no one's doubting

533
00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:56,720
Speaker 1: that the coconut crab is not a great climber. But

534
00:28:56,800 --> 00:28:58,480
Speaker 1: the idea that it would get the coconut and climb

535
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:01,680
Speaker 1: a tree and drop it seems crazy, um, I think.

536
00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:04,120
Speaker 1: The other likely idea is that it might crab climb

537
00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:07,440
Speaker 1: the tree, of course, and and dislodge the coconuts somehow,

538
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:12,400
Speaker 1: which is more likely given its ability to climb. But

539
00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:15,360
Speaker 1: then other versions are that it it simply de husts

540
00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:18,120
Speaker 1: the coconut and then bashes the nut open with its claw,

541
00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:22,800
Speaker 1: or that that it pokes a claw through one of

542
00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:25,000
Speaker 1: the eyes, like the lower part of one of the eyes,

543
00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:27,880
Speaker 1: and then snips the coconut open. Well, that would be

544
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:32,160
Speaker 1: a very powerful snip. Fortunately, these are very powerful claws.

545
00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 1: This last method, the snipping method, actually was observed by

546
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:39,640
Speaker 1: Fletcher in the lab, but he points out that it

547
00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:42,720
Speaker 1: took several days for the crab to do it. But

548
00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:44,840
Speaker 1: then again, like this crab is on its own schedule,

549
00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:47,680
Speaker 1: you know, for you to impose, you know, your human

550
00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:51,000
Speaker 1: schedule on this mighty decapod, quit hurry and me, we're

551
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:54,600
Speaker 1: on crab time. We mentioned already that husts and broken

552
00:29:54,640 --> 00:29:58,440
Speaker 1: coconuts are often seen in the domain of the coconut crab. However,

553
00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:02,280
Speaker 1: contrary to opinions in the past, it is not a

554
00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:06,080
Speaker 1: pest for coconut growers, nothing on the level of say,

555
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:08,720
Speaker 1: the rat, which is a true pest for coconut growers.

556
00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:12,040
Speaker 1: Now that the crab here doesn't depend on the coconut

557
00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:15,239
Speaker 1: as a primary food source. Again, it's happy with all

558
00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:17,680
Speaker 1: these other things that comes across to eat. It's a

559
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:21,200
Speaker 1: it's it's an omnivore. Uh. It is not exclusive to

560
00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:24,000
Speaker 1: the coconut, but it does seem to eat them. And

561
00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:25,760
Speaker 1: in order to eat them, it has to tear into

562
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:29,920
Speaker 1: the coconut with those claws. The claws of the coconut

563
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:34,480
Speaker 1: crab have the strongest pinching force of any crustacean. Uh.

564
00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:38,120
Speaker 1: And according to this according to a study published November

565
00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:43,160
Speaker 1: sixteen in the open access journal PLOS one by a

566
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:47,800
Speaker 1: a Japanese team of researchers led by shin Ichiro Oca,

567
00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:51,040
Speaker 1: and that's that's saying something right. I mean, this is

568
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:55,160
Speaker 1: the strongest pinching force of any crustacean. Because decapods exert

569
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:59,480
Speaker 1: the greatest pinching force relative to their mass in general,

570
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:01,800
Speaker 1: and and this is the greatest pincher of them all.

571
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:05,600
Speaker 1: They write, quote, based on the crabs maximum known weight,

572
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:09,840
Speaker 1: the maximum pinching force of their claws was projected to

573
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:14,000
Speaker 1: be three thousand, three hundred Newton's. This exceeds both the

574
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:17,760
Speaker 1: pinching force of other crustaceans and the bite force of

575
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:21,719
Speaker 1: all terrestrial animals except alligators. Now, I was looking around

576
00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:24,440
Speaker 1: and I could be missing something, but I found that

577
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:28,440
Speaker 1: to be slightly contradicted by other figures that were saying, like,

578
00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:30,640
Speaker 1: you know, what would be the bite force of like

579
00:31:30,720 --> 00:31:33,640
Speaker 1: a tiger or a lion, And I saw that estimated

580
00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:37,160
Speaker 1: it somewhere around four thousand Newton's. I mean, even being

581
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:39,600
Speaker 1: in the same ballpark as the bite force of a

582
00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:42,640
Speaker 1: tiger sounds pretty good. Well, yeah, because I don't know

583
00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:45,120
Speaker 1: about you, but when I think of being pinched by

584
00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:47,600
Speaker 1: a crab, I tend to think of it more as

585
00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:52,080
Speaker 1: an annoyance, not a bone crushing kind of right. Like

586
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:54,280
Speaker 1: if I'm playing around on the beach and my son

587
00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:55,960
Speaker 1: and I see a crab and I'm like, oh, should

588
00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:58,320
Speaker 1: I touch it on its head? And my son's like, oh,

589
00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:00,560
Speaker 1: don't do it, You'll get pinched. I'm not thinking about

590
00:32:00,680 --> 00:32:04,880
Speaker 1: losing a finger. But these these seconds are also strong,

591
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:07,280
Speaker 1: h I've read that they can lift up to twenty

592
00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:10,760
Speaker 1: or sixty one pounds and certainly if you look back

593
00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:14,280
Speaker 1: to Kingdom of the Crabs that that documentary special narrated

594
00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:17,240
Speaker 1: by David Attenborough, you see like three or four of

595
00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:21,120
Speaker 1: them tearing across, tearing apart of bird carcass. So they're

596
00:32:21,200 --> 00:32:24,080
Speaker 1: they're powerful and should maybe be worshiped as gods. I'm

597
00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:28,120
Speaker 1: just saying, well, I mean there's a reason when when

598
00:32:28,160 --> 00:32:30,720
Speaker 1: the crabs start doing their dominance displays, what do they do.

599
00:32:30,760 --> 00:32:32,719
Speaker 1: They hold their claws up in the air. They're like,

600
00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:35,959
Speaker 1: look at the power, look at the glory. Do you

601
00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:38,880
Speaker 1: see it? Yeah? And that that again brings me back

602
00:32:38,920 --> 00:32:42,560
Speaker 1: to what Douglas j Emlyn pointed out in his book

603
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:45,760
Speaker 1: Animal Weapons, that you know, these are high energy adaptations

604
00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:49,080
Speaker 1: not only for just growing these powerful muscular pinchers, but

605
00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:51,600
Speaker 1: also the ability to wave them around like that, the

606
00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:54,280
Speaker 1: ability to put on that show. Yeah, And that's I mean,

607
00:32:55,200 --> 00:32:57,080
Speaker 1: when you think about it, there are there are very

608
00:32:57,120 --> 00:33:00,960
Speaker 1: different kinds of powerful muscles that need Er can invest in.

609
00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:04,280
Speaker 1: You know, You've got the muscles of a cheetah, which

610
00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:06,520
Speaker 1: no one would say are not very powerful, right, but

611
00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:09,600
Speaker 1: they're you know, they're powerful like the leg and the

612
00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:12,640
Speaker 1: body muscles that allow it to move very fast, and

613
00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:15,320
Speaker 1: then you've got these other I'm sure there's a biological

614
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:18,239
Speaker 1: or biomechanics term for this I'm not aware of at

615
00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:20,440
Speaker 1: the moment. That that's sort of like the single use

616
00:33:20,520 --> 00:33:26,040
Speaker 1: muscle that's therefore exerting a really powerful single force all

617
00:33:26,080 --> 00:33:28,920
Speaker 1: at once. It's not made for speed, it's not made

618
00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:31,920
Speaker 1: for you know, necessarily repeated use or anything. But it's

619
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:36,240
Speaker 1: like the jaw muscles of the crocodile, and the crocodilians

620
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:38,640
Speaker 1: have one of the most powerful bites or I think

621
00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:43,120
Speaker 1: the most powerful bite of any animal that comes onto land, right, Yes,

622
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:45,440
Speaker 1: I believe. So this reminds me we should we should

623
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:48,600
Speaker 1: come back and do a like a bite based episode

624
00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:51,200
Speaker 1: because I don't know, some some listeners might find it

625
00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:53,400
Speaker 1: a bit dry, but but I'm always fascinated about it,

626
00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:55,920
Speaker 1: the ranking of the different bites. And then also when

627
00:33:55,960 --> 00:34:00,240
Speaker 1: you get into the the study of what the the

628
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:03,680
Speaker 1: the estimated bite power would have been for something say

629
00:34:03,760 --> 00:34:07,080
Speaker 1: like a sabretooth cat. Yeah, yeah, of extinct animals. Well,

630
00:34:07,120 --> 00:34:10,000
Speaker 1: I remember we were in our episode about the Wolf

631
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:13,799
Speaker 1: of Whale Street. We were comparing the estimated bite forces

632
00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:18,920
Speaker 1: of the megalodon, the ancient gigantic shark and the Leviathan,

633
00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:23,200
Speaker 1: the ancient predatory whale, and I recall they were that

634
00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:25,960
Speaker 1: they were somewhere around each other. I think, yeah, I

635
00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:28,800
Speaker 1: believe they were comfortable. Robert, have you heard this bizarre

636
00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:33,160
Speaker 1: theory that Amelia Earhart was eaten by coconut crabs? No?

637
00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:37,240
Speaker 1: I have not. Is this this is an actual theory? Well,

638
00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:39,040
Speaker 1: I mean I don't. It's not one of those that

639
00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:41,520
Speaker 1: has good direct evidence for it. It's one of those

640
00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:44,480
Speaker 1: that it seems like every few years this shows up

641
00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:46,880
Speaker 1: again in a new round of articles on the internet

642
00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:50,880
Speaker 1: because I probably just because it's a captivating image, but

643
00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:54,399
Speaker 1: I think the idea so in seven Amelia are heart.

644
00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:57,120
Speaker 1: You know, she vanished while flying over the Pacific with

645
00:34:57,160 --> 00:35:00,400
Speaker 1: fred Noon and her navigator, and nobody knows what happened

646
00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:03,200
Speaker 1: to them. It's often been presumed that there there might

647
00:35:03,239 --> 00:35:05,200
Speaker 1: have been bad weather and they crashed into the water

648
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:07,560
Speaker 1: and they sank into the ocean and died, you know,

649
00:35:07,640 --> 00:35:11,399
Speaker 1: died in the crash or drowned. Uh. Everybody's always got

650
00:35:11,480 --> 00:35:15,759
Speaker 1: these these hypothetical what if she actually landed on this

651
00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:18,680
Speaker 1: island and something happened to the plane, and you know,

652
00:35:18,760 --> 00:35:21,280
Speaker 1: and that's why we don't you know whatever. But there's

653
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:25,680
Speaker 1: apparently some theory that she crashed landed on an island

654
00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:30,600
Speaker 1: called Nico Maruro, and that her remains were not found

655
00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:34,479
Speaker 1: there in full because they were consumed and dragged into

656
00:35:34,480 --> 00:35:38,600
Speaker 1: the dens of land crabs, of of coconut crabs. I don't.

657
00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:40,960
Speaker 1: As I said, there does not appear to be good

658
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:43,480
Speaker 1: direct evidence for this is just more kind of like

659
00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:48,560
Speaker 1: what if this happened? Well, I mean, it's assuming that

660
00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:50,960
Speaker 1: she she did crash about an island like that and

661
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:55,879
Speaker 1: either survived or didn't, she stayed there and she died there.

662
00:35:56,360 --> 00:35:59,279
Speaker 1: It seems highly likely that the land crabs would eat

663
00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:03,040
Speaker 1: her like abs are will scavenge and they will consume

664
00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:05,440
Speaker 1: human flesh. That's why you have that old bit of

665
00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:08,960
Speaker 1: folk wisdom to never eat crabs after a hurricane, because

666
00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:11,400
Speaker 1: you're because I guess you don't want to eat crabs

667
00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:13,279
Speaker 1: that have been eating human flesh. I have not heard

668
00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:17,200
Speaker 1: that one. Wow. However, if you kind of secretly want

669
00:36:17,200 --> 00:36:20,719
Speaker 1: to eat human flesh, probably never a better time. It's

670
00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:23,080
Speaker 1: a weird area to get into two jokes about hurricane

671
00:36:23,120 --> 00:36:26,319
Speaker 1: related death, but here we are. Well, it didn't mean

672
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:30,120
Speaker 1: to be insensitive about hurricane related death. But yeah, I

673
00:36:30,239 --> 00:36:32,760
Speaker 1: I do not believe that there is any good reason

674
00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:34,960
Speaker 1: to think that this is what happened to Amelia Hard.

675
00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:38,959
Speaker 1: I think most of the historians of or her biographers

676
00:36:38,960 --> 00:36:41,520
Speaker 1: and historians think that they probably sank into the ocean.

677
00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:44,359
Speaker 1: But anyway, for some reason, people want to keep coming

678
00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:46,200
Speaker 1: back to this one. I think they just like the

679
00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:49,279
Speaker 1: idea of crabs eating people. Well, like I said, crabs

680
00:36:49,320 --> 00:36:52,680
Speaker 1: are gonna eat people. Umy, crabs have probably eaten quite

681
00:36:52,719 --> 00:36:55,120
Speaker 1: a few people over over the course of human history,

682
00:36:55,200 --> 00:36:58,920
Speaker 1: especially in uh in areas close to the sea. And ultimately,

683
00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:02,120
Speaker 1: would uh would sky burial by land crab be that

684
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:04,640
Speaker 1: bad of a thing? You know, I'm not sure it would. Yeah,

685
00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:08,560
Speaker 1: you could become part of somebody's limpid oil. Yeah, this

686
00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:10,400
Speaker 1: could be one of the big trends in the future.

687
00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:13,000
Speaker 1: You know, as we're beginning to is removing even further

688
00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:16,879
Speaker 1: away from uh from from burial of the dead. We've

689
00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:20,319
Speaker 1: done whole episodes about some of the newer methods of

690
00:37:20,360 --> 00:37:24,560
Speaker 1: burial that have become increasingly popular, the idea of green burials.

691
00:37:25,160 --> 00:37:27,920
Speaker 1: Perhaps we will come back to something more like the

692
00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:31,800
Speaker 1: Tibetan sky burial, where a body is uh is ritually

693
00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:35,920
Speaker 1: um taken apart and then fed to scavenging animals in

694
00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:38,959
Speaker 1: the In the Tibetan case, it is vultures. But why

695
00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:42,480
Speaker 1: not land crabs, Why not the coconut crab. I think

696
00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:44,960
Speaker 1: it's a good idea to give the invertebrates a taste

697
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:49,720
Speaker 1: for us. Now, speaking of giant crabs that may consume

698
00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:53,120
Speaker 1: human flesh. Um, Giant crabs are, of course pretty popular

699
00:37:53,200 --> 00:37:56,320
Speaker 1: in motion pictures, and I know that's not as popular

700
00:37:56,360 --> 00:37:59,399
Speaker 1: as you might think. Yes, I think that there should

701
00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:02,120
Speaker 1: be way more or giant crab movies. Well, what are

702
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:04,000
Speaker 1: some of the notable examples? I mean, the main one

703
00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:06,600
Speaker 1: that comes to my mind is Mysterious Island from fifty

704
00:38:06,600 --> 00:38:09,360
Speaker 1: one because you had those ray hairy house and effects

705
00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:12,440
Speaker 1: of that giant crab. Oh, those are great. I love

706
00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:17,359
Speaker 1: Attack the Crab Monsters, the seven Roger Corman special. It's

707
00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:19,880
Speaker 1: you know, you know, I'm a sucker for the Atomic

708
00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:23,440
Speaker 1: age monster movies where there was atomic radiation and it

709
00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:26,839
Speaker 1: made a bigger version of some normal animal. Except it's

710
00:38:26,880 --> 00:38:29,399
Speaker 1: not just a bigger version of crabs in this movie.

711
00:38:29,400 --> 00:38:35,160
Speaker 1: It's great because they're telepathic, sort of immaterial magnetic electric

712
00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:40,480
Speaker 1: radioactive crabs that absorb the consciousness of everyone they eat,

713
00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:44,240
Speaker 1: and they've got plans for world domination, and they slowly

714
00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:49,040
Speaker 1: are consuming the island that they live on. It's um

715
00:38:49,080 --> 00:38:51,960
Speaker 1: It's just one of the best stupid movies ever made

716
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:55,759
Speaker 1: because it is made with such energy and enthusiasm. I

717
00:38:55,760 --> 00:38:57,719
Speaker 1: think a lot of that goes to the script by

718
00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:00,000
Speaker 1: Charles Griffith, who is one of my favorite B movie

719
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:06,279
Speaker 1: v writers. Uh, there's a gleeful embrace of the absurdity. Supposedly,

720
00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:09,440
Speaker 1: Roger Corman told Griffith when he was writing the script

721
00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:11,680
Speaker 1: that he was like, I don't want any boring scenes

722
00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:14,759
Speaker 1: and people just talking. There's gotta be action or suspense

723
00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:19,480
Speaker 1: in every scene. And then the story goes that. Griffith

724
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:23,319
Speaker 1: asked him, Okay, does it have to be about atomic radiation?

725
00:39:23,920 --> 00:39:26,839
Speaker 1: And Corman said yes. So this is the film where

726
00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:29,319
Speaker 1: the crabs have kind of human looking faces. Yeah, they've

727
00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:31,680
Speaker 1: got googly eyes. Yeah. And is this the one that

728
00:39:31,719 --> 00:39:34,080
Speaker 1: you were telling me about where it's possible that Jack

729
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:38,080
Speaker 1: Nicholson played the crab he I think people have denied it,

730
00:39:38,120 --> 00:39:41,000
Speaker 1: but other people have claimed it. So Jack Nicholson was

731
00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:43,840
Speaker 1: part of the Corman scene. I think he was helping

732
00:39:43,840 --> 00:39:47,560
Speaker 1: out on set with Corman movies in the fifties. And yes,

733
00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:52,160
Speaker 1: some people have claimed that underneath the giant crab puppet

734
00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:54,960
Speaker 1: in Attack of the Crab Monsters in some shots it's

735
00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:58,080
Speaker 1: Nicholson under there, but other people have said it's not him,

736
00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:01,839
Speaker 1: so that this there's a question mark, though I don't.

737
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:03,759
Speaker 1: I hope we get to get to find out. Maybe

738
00:40:03,760 --> 00:40:06,480
Speaker 1: that would be like a deathbed confession from Jack Nicholson

739
00:40:06,640 --> 00:40:09,680
Speaker 1: Hill tell the world that he was the crab. Those

740
00:40:09,719 --> 00:40:14,160
Speaker 1: are my ankles under that crab. I was that crab man,

741
00:40:14,239 --> 00:40:16,400
Speaker 1: can't you imagine? Then I get to fit that footage

742
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:21,520
Speaker 1: into the dedication at the Academy Awards. Oh, they're there

743
00:40:21,560 --> 00:40:24,719
Speaker 1: are hilarious stories about the behind the scenes puppet work

744
00:40:24,719 --> 00:40:26,520
Speaker 1: where they were trying to get the crab puppet to

745
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:28,560
Speaker 1: do what they wanted because there was like an underwater

746
00:40:28,680 --> 00:40:31,680
Speaker 1: scene where they were trying to feature it. But I

747
00:40:31,680 --> 00:40:35,160
Speaker 1: think it was made of fiberglass and stuff and it

748
00:40:35,160 --> 00:40:37,920
Speaker 1: wouldn't sink. It was like two buoyant and they were

749
00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:40,320
Speaker 1: weighing it down with stuff to try to make it sink,

750
00:40:40,360 --> 00:40:43,799
Speaker 1: and but it ended up exploding somehow, And so they're

751
00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:47,000
Speaker 1: filming this in the actual surf, right, uh might have

752
00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:50,400
Speaker 1: I think it was in like an aquarium somewhere. They

753
00:40:50,400 --> 00:40:51,799
Speaker 1: were trying to film in the surf. I can only

754
00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:54,719
Speaker 1: imagine how awful that would have been. Like, trying to

755
00:40:54,760 --> 00:40:57,680
Speaker 1: do anything in the surf other than just sort of

756
00:40:58,160 --> 00:41:01,520
Speaker 1: retain your footing is is quite a challenge enough. There

757
00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:03,680
Speaker 1: are at least a few scenes that are actually shot

758
00:41:03,680 --> 00:41:05,279
Speaker 1: in the surf. There's one great one where there are

759
00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:08,200
Speaker 1: a few guys, you know, they're like these navy sailors

760
00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:10,480
Speaker 1: in a rowboat and they're just off the coast and

761
00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:12,600
Speaker 1: one guy falls in the water and they pull him

762
00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:15,799
Speaker 1: back out and he doesn't have a head. And then

763
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:18,400
Speaker 1: one of the scientists is like, I hope that men's

764
00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:21,480
Speaker 1: death is not an omen of things to come. Well,

765
00:41:21,560 --> 00:41:25,120
Speaker 1: crab that would that big would have had considerable pinching

766
00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:27,840
Speaker 1: power that well, they do specify an attack of the

767
00:41:27,880 --> 00:41:31,320
Speaker 1: crab monsters that the crabs are supposed to be land crabs,

768
00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:34,560
Speaker 1: so maybe, I mean they look more just like blue

769
00:41:34,560 --> 00:41:37,680
Speaker 1: crabs or something. They have normal kind of sea crab

770
00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:39,640
Speaker 1: or I don't know about blue crabs. They look like,

771
00:41:39,800 --> 00:41:41,520
Speaker 1: you know, well, they look kind of like the red

772
00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:43,960
Speaker 1: the Christmas Island. It looks like the kind of crabs

773
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:46,040
Speaker 1: you would eat. No, not so much like those. They

774
00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:47,719
Speaker 1: look like the crabs that you would buy at the

775
00:41:47,719 --> 00:41:49,880
Speaker 1: grocery store. I don't know what those are called, and

776
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:53,040
Speaker 1: maybe their land maybe, But anyway, I suppose it could

777
00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:56,640
Speaker 1: be partially inspired by the kind of decapod crustacean we've

778
00:41:56,640 --> 00:41:59,560
Speaker 1: been discussing today. Maybe. Well, but and yet, you I

779
00:41:59,560 --> 00:42:01,840
Speaker 1: don't think in any of these giant crab movies you

780
00:42:01,920 --> 00:42:05,799
Speaker 1: see a giant land crab um that looks like a

781
00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:08,759
Speaker 1: giant hermit crab. It looks like the coconut crab, which

782
00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:12,040
Speaker 1: is our best example of a giant decapod. No, I

783
00:42:12,040 --> 00:42:15,360
Speaker 1: don't think so. There's also there's a movie called Island

784
00:42:15,480 --> 00:42:17,600
Speaker 1: Claws that is pretty good if you get a chance.

785
00:42:17,640 --> 00:42:21,319
Speaker 1: It's also a terrible giant crab b movie. But I

786
00:42:21,360 --> 00:42:23,879
Speaker 1: also think in that one, it's just it looks more

787
00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:27,080
Speaker 1: like you know, dinner crabs. They were created by some

788
00:42:27,120 --> 00:42:32,480
Speaker 1: scientific experiments performed by Barry Nelson. But you know, this

789
00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:34,640
Speaker 1: makes me think though that maybe what we don't need

790
00:42:34,719 --> 00:42:38,200
Speaker 1: is more giant crab films in terms of just like huge, hulking,

791
00:42:38,239 --> 00:42:40,759
Speaker 1: truck sized crabs. But how about just like a dog

792
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:43,920
Speaker 1: sized crab, you know, just just scale up a little

793
00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:46,719
Speaker 1: bit from the coconut crab and then give it, give

794
00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:49,839
Speaker 1: it to enhance speed. I think I feel like that's

795
00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:52,080
Speaker 1: the kind of movie that audiences would really get behind.

796
00:42:53,640 --> 00:42:58,160
Speaker 1: I agree, more giant crab movies please, Yeah, Or to

797
00:42:58,360 --> 00:43:02,000
Speaker 1: go back to the Christmas silent crabs, you know, streaming

798
00:43:02,040 --> 00:43:04,920
Speaker 1: hordes of tiny crabs that you can essentially make the

799
00:43:05,680 --> 00:43:10,080
Speaker 1: squirm movie of of crab films. Oh, that's sort of

800
00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:13,480
Speaker 1: what island clauses before there's a giant crab at the end.

801
00:43:13,520 --> 00:43:16,920
Speaker 1: There's one part where guys like living in a bus.

802
00:43:17,600 --> 00:43:20,719
Speaker 1: He's just living in a bus and he suddenly there

803
00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:23,520
Speaker 1: crabs everywhere and he goes ah, and then the crabs

804
00:43:23,560 --> 00:43:26,719
Speaker 1: turn his bus over. How they do that? This is

805
00:43:26,760 --> 00:43:29,400
Speaker 1: kind of the sacrificial hobo character that shows up, and

806
00:43:30,080 --> 00:43:33,200
Speaker 1: a lot of that is that guy. Yeah. That my

807
00:43:33,239 --> 00:43:36,560
Speaker 1: favorite example, of course being the original from or maybe

808
00:43:36,600 --> 00:43:39,360
Speaker 1: not the original, but I feel like the prime example

809
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:42,880
Speaker 1: of the archetype the old man who pokes the meteoride

810
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:49,080
Speaker 1: in the blob. Yeah, the old Jordi Verile mistake. All right, Well,

811
00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:50,480
Speaker 1: there you have it. We we got a little off

812
00:43:50,520 --> 00:43:53,520
Speaker 1: topic there at the end, just talking about giant crab cinema.

813
00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:56,920
Speaker 1: But this was a fun episode of the Coconut Crab.

814
00:43:57,200 --> 00:44:00,000
Speaker 1: I originally thought would just be part of our Christmas

815
00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:02,880
Speaker 1: of a single Christmas Island episode, but it turned out

816
00:44:02,920 --> 00:44:05,439
Speaker 1: they were just far more interesting. There was too much

817
00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:07,719
Speaker 1: limpid oil in there, just too much limpid oil. We

818
00:44:07,800 --> 00:44:10,480
Speaker 1: just had to suck it all up. So uh, we

819
00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:13,160
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed the episode. Again, if you've ever been

820
00:44:13,360 --> 00:44:15,680
Speaker 1: to Christmas Island or any or if you've been to

821
00:44:15,719 --> 00:44:18,440
Speaker 1: any island that has in this case, that has coconut

822
00:44:18,440 --> 00:44:22,120
Speaker 1: crabs or Robert crabs, if you'd rather please tell us

823
00:44:22,120 --> 00:44:25,400
Speaker 1: about your your sightings of these creatures or your experiences

824
00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:27,840
Speaker 1: with these creatures, we would love to hear from you.

825
00:44:27,840 --> 00:44:29,680
Speaker 1: In the meantime, check out all the episodes of this

826
00:44:29,719 --> 00:44:32,640
Speaker 1: show at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Uh

827
00:44:32,680 --> 00:44:34,680
Speaker 1: that is where you'll find all the episodes. You'll final

828
00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:37,840
Speaker 1: links to our social media accounts. Just a quick reminder

829
00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:41,120
Speaker 1: to check out our new show Invention. You'll find that

830
00:44:41,239 --> 00:44:44,920
Speaker 1: at invention pod dot com that comes out every Monday.

831
00:44:44,960 --> 00:44:48,719
Speaker 1: Each episode is a new Invention, a new page from

832
00:44:48,800 --> 00:44:51,279
Speaker 1: Human techno history and if you dig this show, we

833
00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:55,080
Speaker 1: think you're gonna dig Invention as well. Absolutely so check

834
00:44:55,120 --> 00:44:59,320
Speaker 1: it out big thanks to our awesome audio producers Alex

835
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:02,120
Speaker 1: Williams and Tory Harrison. If you would like to get

836
00:45:02,160 --> 00:45:04,480
Speaker 1: in touch with us directly to let us know feedback

837
00:45:04,520 --> 00:45:07,360
Speaker 1: on this episode or any other, to suggest a topic

838
00:45:07,440 --> 00:45:09,760
Speaker 1: for the future, just to say hi, you can email

839
00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:12,560
Speaker 1: us at blow the Mind at how stuff works dot

840
00:45:12,600 --> 00:45:23,960
Speaker 1: com for more on this and thousands of other topics.

841
00:45:24,080 --> 00:45:37,919
Speaker 1: Does it how stuff works dot com Love would