- Despite being widespread across the Pacific and Indian oceans, coconut crabs are disappearing across their range, according to a new conservation assessment that warns they’re vulnerable to extinction.
- The species, the largest land crab in the world, is threatened by habitat destruction for coastal development and agriculture, as well as by harvesting for the seafood trade.
- The harvesting is also impacting reproductive outcomes for the crabs, given the preference among both consumers and female crabs for bigger male crabs.
- Some conservation groups are already working on the ground in places like Indonesia’s West Papua province to educate community members, tourism operators, guides, and tourists about the importance of coconut crabs.
Coconut crabs (Birgus latro) are widespread across the Pacific and Indian oceans, including in Indonesia, which straddles both. But a newly published conservation assessment finds they’re also edging closer to extinction. The species’ conservation status is now listed as “vulnerable” by the IUCN, the global conservation authority.
“We were getting reports of coconut crab populations either declining or being extirpated from areas,” said assessment co-author Neil Cumberlidge, chair of the Freshwater Crustacean Specialist Group at the IUCN and professor of biology at Northern Michigan University. “This was coming initially from the Pacific, but other people were chiming in and saying, ‘Yeah, I’ve noticed it where I am … in eastern Indonesia.’”
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