Robber crabs (Birgus latro)

[Tleilaxu]

Its it possible to get robber crabs in the USA? Or is this one of those impossible to get species? They are also called coconut crabs. I think having one would be cool but I am still trying to find info one them.

 

[starmaiden]

Its it possible to get robber crabs in the USA? Or is this one of those impossible to get species? They are also called coconut crabs. I think having one would be cool but I am still trying to find info one them.

http://www.csinfo.org/graphics/birgus3[1].jpg

They are pretty impossible to get in the U.S. since they are endangered. There is one person that posts frequently on the crabbing forums who keeps one as a pet in his backyard. He lives on the island of Java, so his backyard is actually its native habitat. From the sounds of it, he spent considerable time hunting a live specimin down even though they are native to parts of Indonesia.

Here's a link to the thread he posted about it on the HCA. I don't know if you can view it as a guest or if you have to register:

My First Coconut Crab (Birgus latro)

 

[starmaiden]

Oh, and a really nice site with great info about all the different species of land hermit crabs (including Birgus latro) is:

http://www.tonycoenobita.com/species_eng.htm

Sorry I couldn't link you directly to the Birgus latro page. The site is designed with frames and only a portion of it is in English, so you have to scroll down to the bottom and click on the pic of the coconut crab to get to the page with that info.