Coconut Crabs

Coconut Crabs

Martin Howard December 10, 2012 View all blog articles

Was just reading the latest edition of "The Guam Guide" newsletter and it's list of must do things on Guam. One of which being "pet a coconut crab." I got a bit of a chuckle out of this, as the thought has never occurred to me, not even in passing.

Anyone that knows me, knows that the only thing besides my wife and my mother that gives me the willies is / are crabs. I'm a firm believer that the skeleton should be on the inside. I thought perhaps I'd given crabs an unfair shake. But a quick google search and I was reminded that crabs are nothing I'll ever want to pet.

As it turns out, coconut crabs are the largest (terrestrial) arthropods in the world. According to the article I read, they don't bite, so I'm not really sure what the author was talking about.