Coconut crab

The giant crab that climbs palms and cracks coconuts

This is the biggest crab that lives on land: 1 metre across its legs and 4 kg heavy! It climbs palm trees for coconuts, then cracks the hard shell with its claw — a pinch as strong as a lion's bite. It roams at night and can smell food 4 km away. As a youngster it lives in a shell like a hermit crab, then grows and leaves it behind.

The coconut crab (Birgus latro) is the largest land arthropod (4 kg, 1 m across), living on islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. A relative of hermit crabs: it carries a shell when young, then its abdomen hardens. Its claw force of 3,300 N is the highest of any crustacean, cracking coconuts and bones. Instead of gills it has 'lungs' (branchiostegal); it drowns in water, and only the larvae live at sea. Its smell organs are insect-like. It lives up to 60 years and grows very slowly. Diet: coconuts, fruit, carrion, even birds. One hypothesis says crabs scattered the remains of the lost aviator Amelia Earhart. Harvesting and habitat loss make it IUCN Vulnerable.

Fun facts

• A coconut crab's claw pinches like a lion's bite — 3,300 N.
• It drowns in water — it has 'lungs', not gills.
• It lives 60 years and smells food 4 km away.