THE COCONUT CRAB AND THE ROCK SPIDER

A genuine source of fascination can be found in the study of genetics. Why do some species use an innate, pre-programmed genetic structure to survive yet other species, including humans, need to be taught how to survive? 

 

Now this might sound boring but please stay with me a minute and you’ll be surprised.

 

One of the most amazing animals on earth is the Coconut Crab. It is the world’s largest land-based arthropod. It breathes via primitive lungs and will drown in water. 

 

It can live for 50 years and will eat just about anything but prefers coconuts which it will climb a tree to retrieve. Fully grown it can weigh up to 5 kilograms.

 

While carrying out search and rescue stuff for the Vanuatu Government I collected Coconut Crabs from outer islands to sell to local restaurants to supplement the cost of helicopter fuel. 

 

I had made many friends in the northern islands, many of whom still practise cannibalism.

 

Anyway these crabs, when first born, adopt the hermit crab practice of living in a shell for protection and I wanted to know if they learnt from older crabs how to survive or whether they already knew what a coconut palm was without ever having seen one.

 

So I cleaned an empty 44 gallon fuel drum, removed the base, and buried it half-deep in the ground and placed a number of new-born baby crabs inside. They could not escape the drum and could see nothing but the sky and each other. 

 

The natives agreed to feed them on everything except coconuts.

 

Now, a baby human’s innate instinct extends to sucking and grasping, everything else is an education process gained from older humans. It’s the same with most species.

 

So is a paedophile pre-programmed to sexually desire little children or does he cultivate the aberrant urge? 

 

It’s possible, during incarceration, to rehabilitate a burglar or even a drug addict. He can learn a better way to survive life. 

 

But when a paedophile is incarcerated there can be no rehabilitation. As soon as he is released he will again return to searching out his prey. His vile, sociopathic compulsion to sexually destroy a child's innocence can be suppressed for a period but the unrequited, unsatisfied urge lives on.

 

So what about these crabs? Well, after two years we released them and watched while they headed up the nearest palm tree and started gnawing at the coconut stems. 

 

When the coconuts fell to the ground the crabs climbed down from the tree and started tearing them apart.

 

Is the rock spider related to the Coconut Crab? (Pickering Post)