This is Genevieve Johnson talking to you from Kiribati in the tropical pacific. How utterly laborious to be required to drag ones home wherever you go. The mere thought of it is tiring in itself. When you actually take the time to consider the fact that this is the only way of life the hermit crab knows, we can better appreciate the efforts of this small crab. On second thought, the crew of the Odyssey can relate quite closely to this lifestyle, like the hermit crab, we also take out home with us where ever we go.
Hermit crabs appear to be a permanent fixture of the land and seascape of pacific atolls.
We have encountered them alone or in small groups at the waters edge, high on the shoreline and in groups of more than 100 piled on top of one another under driftwood, in the ongoing struggle for shade from the blazing equatorial sun. We even find them far back in the desert scrub, where they hide in burrows amongst nesting terns and boobies. At the first sign of a threat, we watched these crabs withdraw into their shell, closing their legs inward, the claws, also used as the first pair of walking legs, forming a hard almost impenetrable barrier in the shell opening. Despite the protection of their borrowed shells, larger crabs, octopus, and wrasses prey upon smaller hermits, as well as other reef fishes with jaws for crushing shelled invertebrates. The hermit crab's abdomen is soft and curved to fit the shell, which will help protect it from predators.