Holy Crab Cakes Batman!

This has got to be one of the biggest coconut crabs (or ayuyu in Chamorro) like ever ever. I've seen a few, some which I thought were pretty big but this is truly amazing.

My wife was sent this picture from her friend Jessica who said in an email along with the photo that she received it from the Brown Treesnake Control Project leader of the Guam Dept of Agriculture. It was apparently caught in northern Guam, right outside the Anderson Air Force Base cliff side of Yigo village.

Now, I know all the local's mouth's are watering at the sight of such a feast but unfortunately I've never been able to partake of the succulent coconut crab, I've only been able to listen with envy to the tales of how luscious it's meat is to consume.


However, the story that coconut crabs eat nothing but coconut, hence the name and the tasty meat, is more of a myth. According to my online research they're not near as picky an eater as I had once been lead to believe.

The diet of coconut crabs consists primarily of fruit, including coconuts and figs. However, they will eat nearly anything organic, including leaves, rotten fruit, tortoise eggs, dead animals, and the shells of other animals, which are believed to provide calcium. They may also eat live animals that are too slow to escape, such as freshly hatched sea turtles. During a tagging experiment, one coconut crab was observed catching and eating a Polynesian rat.

Now that, I would have liked to have seen, not only did that coconut crab eat a rat but he ate one of those ones with the little grass skirt and a coconut bra.

Another interesting point was that apparently they don't stop growing, and it's estimated that they live to be between 30-60 years old. Based on this size of this sucker I'd say he's pushing 80. Oh here's a weird thought, it's possible that this old timer was around during the invasion of Guam back during WWII.

And just when we thought that Guam had gone and beaten us out again, this time being able to lay claim to the biggest ayuyu like ever ever, along comes this picture of these two guys fighting off an even larger specimen down at Forbidden Island.


Crustacean Joke of the Day:

Two lobsters were sunbathing on the beach.
The girl lobster suggested that the boy lobster go get them an ice cream cone.

Having purchased two cones, Mr Lobster made his way back to the beach, deciding on the way to eat his ice cream. By the time he had finished the ice cream, he realized that his girlfriend's had started to melt all down his claw, so he licked it up and ended up eating it too.

When he arrived back at the beach Ms Lobster exclaimed "Where's my ice cream cone?

"Well", he said. "I decided to eat mine, then yours melted so I ate that too."

She was incensed and cried "You shellfish bastard!!"