The Striped Shore Crab

When I saw these crabs, I thought that they were fighting. Then I realized that the crab on the right was dead. The crab on the left dragged the dead crab across the rocks and then down to a crevice. It settled in and began snacking on its incredible find, a crab dinner. These are Striped Shore Crabs. They are called scavengers because one of their favorite things to eat is dead animals that float around the tide pools. Icky, but true. Once again, it’s a good thing they do so that there
aren’t a bunch of dead crabs and dead fish floating around stinking up the place. Striped Shore Crabs also eat algae, limpets, and snails. For protection, they have exoskeletons, just like the Crayfish. They wedge their backs into cracks. This leaves the claws out in front of the crabs so that they can grab food floating by or they can defend themselves. The Striped Shore Crab can be purplish or greenish in color with red claws. Because it did not get eaten by a seagull when it was young, it reached a width of about 4 inches. Can you think of an animal that enjoys eating
crabs? Is it you? Have you ever eaten crab cakes, or ceviche, or crab legs? Mmm, good!


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