Odd surprise

[tripathy]

So around this time of year, I'm used to certain things: students trying to get into our (full) courses, new students who are lost and confused, tour groups blocking hallways, froshies being weird and nutty all over the place, etc.

What we don't expect to find is a crab wandering around on the first floor of our building.


Yes, a crab. A living crab. Security found it last night and gave it to one of our lab managers, who put it into a nice big container with some water and a box to hide in and then proceeded to ask around this morning in case anyone knew where the hell this thing had come from.

Because we are a geology department. There are no live specimens of anything in our building. The only things we have remotely resembling crabs are fossils.

This is our crab:


The white thing next to her is the size of a paper plate. Glenna thinks it's a girl because it doesn't have one big claw, which male crabs apparently have.

So anyway, Glenna came upon the answer when one student said "Hey, that looks just like the ones I saw in Nicaragua!" Turns out said student had just come back from the field in Nicaragua and had opened this bag filled with samples for the first time yesterday down in one of the first floor labs/offices. Said bag had not only come back from Nicaragua but had been sitting for three days in Customs before she had picked it up. She (and customs officials, who I guess never searched the bag or anything even though they were keeping it) never knew that there was a little stowaway in there! (She definitely didn't bring it on purpose, since she said she was a bit freaked out upon seeing these crabs in the wild while she was there.)

With the country of origin figured out, it was then easier to determine that our crab is a Halloween crab, generally herbivorous but also a scavenger that will eat just about anything. Apparently they tend to be sold as exotic terrarium pets.

We are utterly fascinated and enamoured of this little crab. Some of the students want to keep it as a department mascot, and so do I! It probably wouldn't work out, though, because if the university found out that we were keeping a (however unintentionally) illegal exotic pet on the premises, there could be trouble. So one of our profs is going to take it home, get a terrarium for it, find out everything he can about it and its care, and have it as a pet.

I'm kind of sad that it won't be staying here, because it's just so cute! I adore the little pop-up eyes. I'm sure that someone here is going to tell me that it's wrong to keep her, but we don't want her to die after everything she's already been through. It's amazing that this little thing has survived, and she totally deserves a good life for getting this far.

It must have been hella weird, though...you're just walking the hallways, and then suddenly ZOMG CRAB. Surreal.

Comments

[silverjackal.livejournal.com]

Heh. All the way from Nicaragua -- that's one tough little crab (especially since I would have expected it to dry out en route).

I'm sure that someone here is going to tell me that it's wrong to keep her

Not really, given the situation. Your only other options would be surrendering it to a zoo/aquarium/rescue organization, and euthanasia. Anyone who would tell you to release it would be in the wrong because it's not equipped to survive in this climate, and might be harboring any manner of exotic diseases that it could pass on to native wildlife. Introducing non-native species into the wild is always a very bad idea. I doubt your local authorities would be too concerned about a single accidentally imported crab, provided it's not an endangered/protected species to begin with. I thought it looked very much like the crabs I've seen in Peru and Ecuador, and it turns out that it is the same species. Very pretty colouring.

[tripathy.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear that you agree with her being kept! I figured you'd know best for situations like this.

We never had any intention of releasing her into the wild for exactly those reasons. Apparently these crabs can live up to 10-15 years, but releasing her here would have meant death in a couple of months when the weather started to get colder. Having her euthanized for any reason after her having made it so far seems incredibly cruel.

Her survival is incredible...I read that they need to keep their gills wet or they can die, and she went through a plane ride, then three days closed up in a bag, then another half-day before she was found wandering and given water. She certainly is tough, and definitely adorable as crabs go!

It sounds like she won't be too hard to care for because she'll eat just about anything. She seems to be doing all right...she ate some grapes this afternoon and already had a little poop before the prof took her home ^_^. He's the lucky winner, because there were at least six people interested in having her! She was a celebrity in the department today.

[silverjackal.livejournal.com]

Your new crab owner can probably feed her very well with moistened dried seaweed, occasional sardines, the odd cube of shrimp from the pet store (easily stored frozen) and an assortment of fruits and vegetable matter (i.e. plain household compost). The only thing that might be tricky is providing the right range of salinity, and possibly heat and UV light. I don't know enough about the species to tell you offhand, but a good aquarium shop should be able to help, both with care advice and equipment. It doesn't look like a Care Sheet is readily available online, but there's still useful commentary to be had.

Edited to add: pardon me, but I seem to have replied wrong. I have no excuse save that it has been a difficult day, and I have no beer, and I could really use a beer. :P

[tripathy.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I passed that link on to the new crab owner, along with info another friend gave me about how to tell if the crab is a boy or a girl. Hopefully he'll check that out soon because I really want to know!

We have a couple of beers in the office fridge, left over from a party a while back, if you want them... ^_~

[danalwyn.livejournal.com]

She's a cute little thing, isn't she? She'll probably find your winters to be a little cold, but hopefully she's not too unhappy about being taken out of Nicaragua, to somewhere where she's less likely to be stepped on. Also where she's probably going to be getting awesome food, or at least more variety then she's used to.

Small too. Just about the size of a crab cake really.

[Runs away before anybody can kill him]

[tripathy.livejournal.com]

She's adorable, and I'm sure she'll be well taken care of and be warm enough under a nice lamp in the winter. I hope she's not too unhappy to be out of Nicaragua either, but really, it's her own silly fault!

Yeah, you run away! She has pinchy claws, you know!