H4_W6B_002

Date: 2017

Location: Galapagos Islands

Did you know?

Sally Lightfoot crabs are brightly-coloured coastal scavengers, found in the Galapagos Islands and across the western coast of South and Central America. They have an extremely generalist diet, feeding on anything from sea lion placenta to other crabs. This makes them an important part of the ecosystem, as they provide services such as keeping the shore clean of any organic debris and eating ticks off marine iguanas. They are rumoured to have been named after a Caribbean dancer, due to their agility in jumping from rock to rock, their ability to run in four directions and their capacity to climb up vertical slopes. This extreme agility makes them very difficult to catch. Adult crabs show characteristic intense blue and red colouring on their shells, with a white or pale blue underbelly.

About the picture

Pair of Sally crabs - visibly one is bigger than the other. These crab lives among the rocks at the often turbulent, windy shore, just above the limit of the sea spray. It feeds on algae primarily, sometimes sampling other plant matter, sponges, mollusks

Fun Fact

The crabs change colors by molting their shells