Life by the sea

life by the sea.

full of life.

The beach looks empty today, but take a closer look.

What do you see? what live here?

Beaches are full of life! Birds like pelicans and gulls are on the beach. pelicans dive to catch fish in their huge mouths. gull fly looking for food. Then they all rest on the sand. but many animals live under sand.

When you go to de beach, you can see many things. sit and watch a hole in the sand. wait and look!

A crab is coming out!

True crabs

Crabs live on the beaches all around the world. there are about 4500 species, or kinds, of crabs in the world.

Most crabs live under the water, but some live on land.

Land crabs are different. the go back to the water to lay their eggs.

Baby crabs do not look like adult crabs. they do not have any legs. baby crabs molt several times.

This means that they break out of their skin.

The soon grow legs and come out the water. crabs continue to molt as the grow. each time they break out of their old skin, they grow larger. after several days or weeks, their new skin turns into a hard shell.

Crabs have ten legs. the two front legs are called claws.

The crab uses its claws to hold its food and to fight. Crabs eat many things. they catch small animals for food, but they also eat dead animals. some crabs even eat plants.

Crabs` eyes are at the end of stalks, they can turn their eyes all the way around. a crab can also pull its eye stalks into its head. some species have very long eyes stalks.

One interesting crab is called the ghost crab. Ghost crab live in many countries. They run very fast. When they stop, they can hard to see. That is why they are called ghost crab. Ghost crab also can change color to look like the sand where they live. On black sand beaches, they are black. On white sand beaches, they are white.

Ghost crab come out at night to eat. if you walk on the beach at night you may see them. they dig a hole where they stay during the day. it can be over one meter deep! if you lie on the sand, you may hear them bellow. Ghost crab are usually 2.5 - 5 cm across the back.

One claw is always smaller than the other.

Fiddler crabs are small like Ghost crab. they also live in holes at the beach. but unlike Ghost crab, the look for food during the day. male fiddler crabs are easy to tell from the females. males have one claw that is much larger than the other. males wave their big claw to attract female.

they are over sixty-five species of fiddler crabs. they can be many different colors. they are lighter color at night and darker during the day. sometime large groups of fiddler crabs cover the beach.

life without a shell

Hermit crabs move from house to house! they do not grow their own shell. they must find an empty shell and move into it. As they grow, the leave one shell and find a bigger one. so, the shells of hermit crabs can look very different. hermit crabs are not true crabs, because they do not make their own shells.

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