This Is Why Australia Will Never Eat Millions of Red Crabs

This is an island with free food, collect these

crabs

and eat as much as you want, there are so many of them that it is impossible to drive down the road and not crush some, look at them, they are everywhere, you can win something decent. cash selling these

crabs

surprisingly no one seems to be doing it no one even picks up

this

free food that just slips underfoot today you

will

learn where the most expensive and tastiest crabs on the planet live why fishermen look for crabs in soft tissue shell despite that the authorities ban it, what people are

will

ing to do to save a completely inedible species and which crab is equally good in a soup and, as a mass murderer, let's begin.

Better ask Steve. Imagine you go out one morning and see that. crabs, crabs everywhere, but if you think it's a lot of crabs, you're wrong, it's a lot of crabs and you can see

this

scene on almost every street wherever you go, if you don't know exactly what's going on, you'd think the crab apocalypse has begun or perhaps an invasion of zombie crabs, how else can you explain that

millions

of animals emerge from the ground and then march around the island like the walking dead? They cannot be stopped by cars, people, or any other obstacles these crabs have. a goal they are striving for and everything else stops being important and if you just stand there and watch everything around you, as far as you can see, become filled with red with little swarming bodies, you can't even walk without step on at least one of them.

There is no place for humans here. Look how many of these crabs there are. Imagine this happening on a street full of people. When the wave of crabs recedes, it is as if they had left behind a path covered with the bodies of their fallen relatives. It looks like a massacre. Seriously, this fad takes a toll on countless crabs every year, thousands are hit by cars and others risk dying of dehydration when exposed to the scorching sun, look at this guy or girl, that crab, it's running so fast like he can barely stay alive and that's only because people try to drive slowly while the crab apocalypse unfolds around them do you know what those dark spots are that are already motionless on the road?

I think you can guess over the course of a few weeks that this is happening a lot more times, but the interesting thing is that people don't care what's going on, there's an army of spider-like bugs crawling all over the roads, but it's like no one is bothering them, drivers aren't trying to crush them, no one is stepping on them, and there is no bug spraying, and it's not just because bug spray won't do anything against these crabs; On the contrary, people come from all over the world to see the crab apocalypse with their own eyes and locals spend tons of money and time to help the crabs reach their destination. destiny, but seriously, what is going on here?

Red Earth Crabs prefer a solitary lifestyle and spend most of their time digging in the dirt and leaves in search of food. They build their homes in burrows or deep crevices in rocks. They adopt the single lifestyle most of the year. The crabs relax. Their homes just live life day by day, but when the heavy rains start in October or November, you won't believe what happens suddenly,

millions

and millions of adult red crabs are on the move leaving their cozy abodes behind. At first glance, it seems like there is an offensive army marching towards the coast, but the crabs have a different goal: they are heading to the water to mate with all this crab.

The madness is happening on Christmas Island, 930 miles from mainland Australia and 217 miles south of the Indonesian island of Java, the Redland crab is Christmas Island's keystone species, you could say it's its pet, no It's amazing that the entire local community embraces crabs, they're as iconic as spaghetti in Italy, except you don't eat them anymore afterwards to prepare for the huge annual crab. Migrants spend months of their time and a great deal of money installing miles of temporary road barriers. Installing barriers helps keep crabs away from roads, preventing them from being crushed by cars, by directing crabs toward safe crossings, such as underpasses and overpasses.

I've seen Redland's crab population more than double in the last 5 years, from 50 million to over 100 million, and you can imagine how wild it is to see millions of crabs marching around the island. The incredible thing is the noise. Imagine millions of tiny feet tapping. far away once you hear it you won't be able to get it out of your head, it sounds tap tap tap day and night loud and clear all people can do is help the crabs reach their destination, that's why the rangers of the Isla de Christmas they built 31 underpasses on the island, check it out, there are safe passages under the roads besides the ones I mentioned above, they made about 12M of barriers to prevent the crabs from reaching the roads, but several years ago they found this place where Tunnels just wouldn't work, so they put up a bridge, yeah, a bridge just for the crabs, why not?

Sydney may have the Harbor Bridge in San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, but the small Crab Bridge attracts many tourists from all over the world, although they come to Think about it, the bridge is small, but from the point of view of the crabs It is as tall as a skyscraper. Thank goodness crabs aren't afraid of heights. I think now let's see what migration looks like up close, not so close. Steve, get up. In total, it takes about 3 months for male crabs to meet females on the coast, near the coast. Males dig special family burus for females to lay their eggs after establishing comfortable homes for their potential offspring.

The males return to the forest, leaving the females. and future baby crabs hide in the Burrows after 12 or 13 days of incubating their eggs and with the arrival of the waning moon the female red crabs head to the Sea not to swim, although they are just releasing their eggs into the water and it looks like this the black mass under their bellies are eggs that are ready to swim these funky moves aren't a groovy dance, they're just the way crabs release their babies, although adding a disco ball would be a fun touch . When they enter the water, the small crabs hatch almost immediately, however, they spend another month in the sea going through several larval stages, only a handful manage to survive the strong ocean currents and predators in the sea, those that survive begin their trip back to the rainforest competing with predators like yellow crazy ants along the way, so the crabs keep moving back and forth on the island, first the adults, then the little ones, and this keeps happening over and over again, It's no wonder that people are used to a lot of crabs constantly scurrying somewhere nearby, although you know it's actually quite surprising because the annual migration causes enough inconvenience to the locals, people not only have to be on the lookout to the crabs by blocking roads, driving carefully and building things to keep them safe, but there is also the risk of the crabs causing accidents - their tough exoskeletons can even puncture tires.

Also, crabs don't really care where they go when they are on the move, you may see them not only on roads but also in unexpected places like schools, offices, supermarkets or even your own kitchen or closet, there is also a chance You might accidentally step on one in the dark, so it turns out people just have to deal with these crabs. According to Australia's parks agency, these crabs play a key role in maintaining the island's rich biodiversity, its job of devouring them. Fallen leaves ensure that the forest floor remains healthy. The crabs are reducing the number of flies on the island.

Additionally, their burrows help the soil obtain more oxygen, making it richer and fertile. Simply put, if the red crabs disappear, the island will not survive in the long term. People who run really have no choice here and I'm not exaggerating. There are places on the island where crabs die during migration so often that they simply do not return to the forest. People have noticed that as crab populations decline the forest loses its diversity also where crabs disappear invasive species thrive, okay I get it, crabs are very important to the island but come on, crab meat It's delicious, a real delicacy and these guys are just wandering around, why not pick them up and throw them in a bag with a scoop, yes, crabs need to reproduce to maintain the ecosystem, but why not catch them on the way back when Is the job done once the little ones are in the ocean?

Why not prepare a meal with the adults? Well, here's the thing, the crabs. They are quite small but their bodies have a lot of water and the meat is not top notch, I mean it's 96% water, it's like eating a dishwashing sponge with only crab flavor and by the way, Red Land crabs They don't even taste like normal crabs. This is why people don't eat them, if you are thinking of starting a business with them you would have to catch and clean a lot of crabs otherwise you won't have enough meat to sell and as a result you will end up with more waste than The crabs we are used to eating are a lot of work for very little reward and the meat doesn't taste good either.

Red crabs may not be everyone's favorite, especially for humans, but yellow crazy ants differ at first. In the 20th century, these ants unintentionally ended up on Christmas Island from Africa in their new home, integrated seamlessly, and now create super colonies spanning hundreds of acres with billions of members. They also destroy red crabs in large numbers. Scientists believe that yellow crazy ants have killed 10 to 15 million red crabs in recent years, representing between a quarter and a third of the total population. Although the crabs have hard shells, the ants crawl effortlessly on them by releasing formic acid into the eyes and joints of the crab's legs, the acid paralyzes the crab preventing it from escaping.

No matter how hard you try and eventually become food for the ants, surprisingly the ants don't seem to mind the taste of crab meat, so here's the thing: the crabs play a vital role in keeping the island alive. , but the ants kill off a large number of them. See the problem here, but it seems people have come up with a solution: They're bringing a small Malaysian wasp known as tardia igus somr to the island. The idea is that it will compete with ants for food but will cause much less damage. Ideally there would be fewer ants and they would do less damage to the crabs, but I have my doubts about that.

Usually when people bring in new species to help them, things only get worse. Remember toads were brought to Australia to fight against insects but now Australia has to fight against toads and so far the toads are winning in Hawaii they tried to use monges to control rats but they didn't take into account that mongooses are active during the day and rats are active at night. The only thing that makes me feel a little better is that the species were introduced without proper research in both cases I would like to believe that people have started to learn from their mistakes with the wasps it seems that the scientists did their homework they assure us that the newly arrived they won't bother anything or anyone, they shouldn't and won't attack the important creatures on the island, let's wait and see, and while we're on the subject of mainland Australia, what about the crabs?

It turns out that they are facing their own problems. own crab apocalypse Every winter thousands of local spider crabs appear in the shallow waters of the south coast, forming huge piles underwater, some as tall as a man and, frankly, it looks a little creepy, it's as if at any moment This thing could start moving towards you. knock you down and who knows, maybe eat you. There may be more than 50,000 crabs in these groups. I don't even want to think about how people arrived at this figure. The really exciting thing about all of this is that the crabs are about to grow.

Yes, they are planning to get rid of their old chitus shells, so for a while the crabs will be quite vulnerable. Oh, by the way, we have another video on this, if you haven't seen it, be sure to check it out below. All of these crabs are assembled at the same time in about an hour after that they just stay together for a few days waiting for their new shells to harden. Many people think that crabs gather in large groups to ensure a quicker molt.safe. Thousands and thousands of crabs gather together. in shallow waters and under man-made pairs, offering them additional protection from various predators such as rays, small sharks, birds, octopuses and other crabs separating themselves from the crowd can be a death sentence for crabs.

The Sting race spits out only the empty shell of the crab, all that it is. To the left of the crab, I have to say that scientists are making an educated guess, they are not entirely sure that giant spider crabs have been seen gathering along the coasts of Victoria and Tasmania recently, but there are tons of questions and none answer. How many spider crabs? There are how many of them? They meet in groups. How long do crabs stay together? Scientists are so baffled that they ask ordinary people for help. If anyone sees crabs and bunches or just an empty shell lying around, they ask them to report it. which for the spider crab, look, listen, this is the same as with red land crabs, a group of animals in one place, so why not collect them and use them for food?

Should be pretty easy, red crabs hit the jackpot because they aren't. They are tasty while spider crabs are not so lucky as they are considered a delicacy, that is why people take the opportunity to collect some crabs when they are all in one place, people catch crabs right where they hide from the predators under artificial pairs, for example, the 2019 The 2020 crab season was marked by a large catch, thousands of crabs were taken from the water. Each day in 2020, only a handful of crabs found below their peers on the Mornington Peninsula were able to be properly ground due to some issues, most of which were removed.

Animal rights activists are expressing concern about the well-being of the crabs and are currently advocating for a petition to ban the capture of these creatures during molting. Crabbing is perfectly fine since we've been doing it for years. The problem comes. When crabs gather in large numbers, they cannot be hunted at this time unless we are okay with causing irreparable harm to the entire crab population. The fascinating thing is that dolphins acted as bodyguards for crabs, although hardly intentionally, a few years ago in the West. Australian fishermen realized their crab traps were being raided and the bait was gone, the crabs were nowhere to be found, people thought they had fish so they set up cameras and discovered the dolphins were simply catching their bait before the crabs could get to it.

It's a big problem even for creatures as intelligent as dolphins. Crab traps are used in many places, but nowhere else did the dolphins manage to figure out how to open them and steal the goodies, all with just their noses, but there's more to the story when the crab fishermen place the bait under the trap instead of on top. The dolphins did this. Yes, they quickly realized that the trap needed to be turned around and you guessed what came out on top. Another type of Australian crab known as tabuka flula belongs to the fiddler crab family. These crabs inhabit an area stretching from Mangrove Bay in Western Australia to the north.

Fiddler crabs prefer to live in sandy or muddy environments where sand is abundant. They are commonly seen along the edges of mangroves and pose no threat despite residing. In large colonies, adult male crabs are notable for their striking features, a single large claw, they usually use it in combat with other males and reserve the smaller claw for the crab's daily activities, which is why they are called fiddler crabs. when they move that big looking claw. like they are playing the violin or so scientists say, but think about this, male fiddler crabs have one claw that is much larger than the other and accounts for up to 40% of their total weight.

Interestingly, they are the claws they use to grab food, can you see? What I mean here in the south of Portugal people enjoy eating the big claw of the uken Jerry fiddler crab it is a local delicacy. Fishermen remove the large claw from the male crab and throw it back into the mud because these crabs can grow back. claws regularly not only in emergencies like lizards do, but before each time they shed their shell. When they looked at the population there it turned out that about 38% of the males sampled had missing or regenerated claws and since fiddler crabs are not difficult to catch it is just a potentially endless source of crabs, although of course in life In reality, things are much more complicated.

First, crabs use their claws to attract females to their burrows to mate. If a crab does not have claws, the females will not pay attention. For such a male, the large claw serves as a weapon during fights with other males. It's not just one-on-one combat. The males also protect their burrows from competing crabs. This puts a crab with a small claw at a disadvantage and also causes it to grow a new one. The claw is quite a task for a crab, it requires a lot of resources and energy, it is much harder for a crab to survive without a claw compared to those that have one, but I guess that's pretty obvious, and Steve tells me Sometimes a crab that grows the new claw begins to bluff, this happens if the old claw is lost prematurely during mounting when regeneration occurs, the regenerated claw may appear the same size as the original but is physically weaker, As a result, these guys need to modify their battle strategies to ensure a proof of victory.

This guy's claw may not be the strongest, but he waves it so much that almost no one would guess it's like his usual move at the start of a fight, trying to make the other guy back off by being intimidating and surprisingly the crabs pull. This is disabled, but we haven't talked about all the crabs yet. Meet the European green crab. It lives on the Atlantic coast of Europe and in North Africa. On the map, its habitat is marked in blue, but these are its factory settings, so to speak, the species. has already successfully spread around the world to North America, Japan, South Africa, Australia, in short all places marked in red by the way the yellow areas on the map are the areas where this invasive species will emerge in near future, but returning to Australia, records show that European green crabs were first seen there in 1900 in Port Philip Bay.

Since then, the crabs have spread in different directions. They have been found in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales. Most likely, the original European green crabs were stowaways that were brought over. with the European stones, these stones were used as semi-dry ballast on English ships and the crabs have just traveled, who could have predicted that they would become such a nuisance exhibiting all the typical behaviors of the invasive species that the European green crab has had a negative effect on local species and aquaculture because it turns out to be a very hungry predator that eats well almost anything of the right size.

This situation is not good news. The European green crab causes a lot of problems. It even harms people because it chases clams and muscles, wreaks havoc on farms and has no natural enemies or rivals with its murderous appetite, anything in its path becomes a fair profit from other crabs and fish for young lobsters. I already mentioned clams, no one can handle the powerful claws of an invasive crab. or your appetite, see for yourself, it is quite common for a single crab to dig up and eat up to 40 small clams in a day, plus, crabs are not at all bothered by changes in water temperature, oxygen levels or the salt content, they are like the ultimate survivors that thrive in all types of environments, you can see that just by checking out their wide variety, of course this begs the question why don't we eat them all instead of just trying to get rid of them?

European green crabs that some people are considering. a different approach turning them into a meal fishermen and chefs are slowly getting used to the idea of ​​cooking and serving European green crabs why there aren't many of them and they are essentially seafood due to their small size the best way to cook green crabs is to eat them whole when the hard shell has not yet emerged, that is, you have to take crabs that have recently molted and have not yet had time to harden and look quite delicious. Another option is to make a broth with the shell currently.

This is the most common method and Simple to use green crabs in cooking because finding freshly molted crabs takes time, but you can always boil any crab regardless of how you cook them. Green crabs are a delicious alternative to other crab species, simply put, they are edible. and you should definitely consider trying them. Surprisingly, we haven't seen any Australian chefs experiment with them, perhaps it's time they considered the idea that European green crabs can be used to make something unexpected. Whiskey In the small town of Tamworth, New Hampshire, there is a distillery that seems pretty ordinary like any other whiskey distillery, but what's surprising is what they use as a base ingredient: whiskey with the unique flavor of European green crab is made from of 4 year old Bourbon and over 88 pounds of these crabs.

I wonder how anyone thought of this. The distillery owner attributes the inspiration to Asian cuisine, particularly the use of fish sauce. See you later.