Australian Soldier Crabs

[Kyle Jones]

I made my trip to New Zealand and Australia in early March, but I had so many pictures I ran out of steam processing them. I finally got to these shots I took at the Tilligerry Habitat where we were looking for wild Koalas. We didn't find any Koalas, but we did find swarms of these soldier crabs taking advantage of the low tide. I liked both wider views showing the group as well as tighter shots highlighting some individual crabs. For the sake of scale, the largest crabs are probably less than an inch wide.

Any thoughts are welcome!

1) Marching soldier crabs

2) Tighter on a group of crabs

3) A larger crab watching the group

4) Getting in close...

 

[AlanLichty]

Interesting that they cluster around each other almost like ants. Without seeing motion it's hard to even recognize they these are crabs in the first image.

Might get a bit tedious trying to make crab cakes with these guys

 

[JimFox]

How interesting Kyle! I never knew any crabs had this kind of behavior.

And I do understand too about needing breaks when there is a lot of photos to work through from a trip.