September 22nd, 2008
We followed the advice of some retirees, a lovely couple, to take a walk around the Mangrove trees and wait silently for the crabs to appear. As we walked down we noticed some small crabs around the roots of the Mangroves (their roots are above ground near the water’s edge). They were quite small, about 2 cms wide, with pale bodies and one large orange claw whose job it is to clean the tree roots. Karel explains it perfectly when he says they look like something out of a sci-fi movie. They were continuous waving their large claw up and down for no apparent reason while a few black crabs moved around them. We later read that the claw wave is a way to attract females, potentially the equivant of the ‘wink and the gun’ move or perhaps the licking the fingers combing the eyebrows move. We continued our walk down to where the tree trunks are and saw the hundreds of crab holes. We tried to stay as still as possible and didn’t speak as the crabs pick up on slight vibration. Sure enough after about ten minutes several crabs peered out. They were larger about the size of a closed fist, black with some orange red markings. A few minutes later a water mongoose, which eats the crabs, ran out grabbed at something and then ran when he saw us. It was actually really amazing.
*copyright Kieran
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