As you adventure out from Silver Sands you will most certainly come across some of Cayman's resident hermit crabs, the Caribbean Hermit Crab or sometimes called Soldier Crabs. A few quick facts:
-Hermit Crabs take their homes with them. They scavenge empty shells to use as their home and when they grow too big, they exchange it for a bigger "newer" model.
-Hermit Crabs are herbavores but are also scavengers making their diet full of variety.
-Hermit Crabs can live for decades!
-Hermit Crabs only breed in the wild. Once they mate and the eggs are ready, they go to the sandy shores of the sea and release their eggs into the water.
-Hermit Crabs are often for sale in a pet store. Sadly because hermit crabs only breed in the wild, most certainly all pet store crabs have been ripped away from their natural home and family. They also tend to not do so well in captivity. So perhaps it is best to only visit hermit crabs here in Cayman rather than buy them and try to keep them as pets.
The above crab is from the Mastic Trail here in Cayman and it was HUGE! Probably one of the biggest crabs I have ever seen.
Hermit crabs are social creatures and congregate for mating, shell swaps, or even to forage for food together.
Living here in Cayman they are found on the beach, in the bush and on my aloe plant in my garden!
With all the plastic polluting the oceans and people taking natural shells as souvenirs, there is a hermit crab housing crisis. These crabs have had to find what they can to protect themselves.
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