Crabs are generally found in water. But the giant coconut crab has a passion for water.
This crab climbs the coconut tree and takes the coconut, throws it down and comes down to remove the top shell, the husk and the coconut.
Apart from this he also eats juicy fruits. Sometimes these crabs are also found eating meat.
The body length of these crabs is 16 inches and the legs are three feet long. It weighs nine pounds. The bankiostegal organ in the body enables these crabs to take in oxygen from the air. This organ also provides moisture to these crabs. Interestingly, this crab is nocturnal.
This crab is found on the islands of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, as well as in Southeast Asian countries.
Coconut crabs are generalist scavengers that feed on fallen fruit, carrion, and (to ingest calcium) the shells of other crabs. The coconut crab is known for its ability to use its massive pincers (chelae) to crack open coconuts. The largest coconut crabs can exert a force of 3,300 newtons (about 742 pound-force) with their pincers. Coconut crabs have also been known to open coconuts by dropping them from trees and striking them repeatedly with their pincers or using their pincers to pierce the coconut’s husk before splitting the seed open.
The female releases her ripe eggs in the sea, and they immediately hatch as microscopic swimming zoeas. This first larval stage, which lives in the water, feeds on small organisms. After 20 to 30 days the zoea develops into a glaucothoe, the intermediate stage, and leaves the water to live in a seashell for three or four weeks. It then discards the shell, buries itself in moist sand, and transforms into a small adult. Most of the daylight hours are passed in burrows up to about 0.6 metre (2 feet) deep, sometimes two crabs to a burrow.
The crabmeat is a local delicacy, and the crab is at risk because of demand for its flesh in some parts of its range.