Tag: #Cretanlife

At one of my visits to the island Gramvousa, I went for a swim with my college Irina, she loves snorkeling and always finds something. This time she found this little hermit crab

As I am always looking for new things to learn I opened my browser to find some more information about this little creature. Little did I know….. I looked it up by the shape and form of the shell 😁, wrong!!

They don’t come with the shell, they have to find a fitting shell by themselves, any shell will do, as long as it is big enough.

As finding the right shell is not always easy, these little crabs work together and have figured out a second hand shell exchange system. Here is what they do : One crab finds a shell that is bigger than her current one and that she thinks might suit her, so she gets out of her current shell to try the new one. When she sees that it doesn’t fit her she goes back in her own shell and waits for another crab to come. The second crab also tries out the shell and when it doesn’t fit she also goes back into her current shell and waits for the next crab to come. They do this until a crab is satisfied with the shell and keeps it. In the meantime the crabs are in line from the largest to the smallest crab. Now the first crab in line will take the empty shell of the satisfied crab and leave hers behind for the next crab in line. So in the end every crab has got a larger shell to fit in.

Pretty clever isn’t it!!