It’s the sort of mystery that leaves ecologists hungry for answers: A submerged crab trap inexplicably hauled out of the depths, ripped open and the bait trap emptied – a few teeth marks the only clue that some sort of predator may be to blame. It took almost a year and a set of remote […]
Tag: Crab
With ‘terrifying’ trade in African hornbills, scientists call for increased protection
For millions of years, the African landscape — the rainforests, woodlands, savannas and scrublands — has echoed with the booms and cackles of large, raucous, strange-looking birds: hornbills. When U.S. ornithologist Nico Arcilla came to Gabon in the late 1990s as a Peace Corps volunteer, these noisy birds enchanted her. “There’d be a big flock […]
Christmas Island’s Red Crab Migration Takes Over the Coastline
Christmas Island is currently hosting a fascinating natural phenomenon — the mass migration of tens of millions of red crabs. Triggered by the first substantial rain of the wet season, adult red crabs leave their forest homes in the interior of the island, going on a journey toward the coast for mating and spawning. Christmas […]
Common Eider Eating a Crab
While I was looking around the waters beside McMillan pier for the dovekie, I came across a female Common Eider, who had caught a crab. I observed and photographed what the eider went through prior to eating the crab. In order to be able to swallow the crab the eider has to remove all its […]