The Mangroves Have Crabs!!!

The Mangroves Have Crabs!!!

            On today’s adventure we went to the through kayaking through the beautiful mangrove forest ecosystem in Tavernier, Florida. We had a great time and got to experience a ton of different species like the mangrove tree crab (Aratus pisonii). These crabs are so interesting to me personally because of the way they are able to move around the mangrove forest through the trees and especially the way that they are able to climb forwards and backward as well as hop/jump between trees.

They are mostly found in tropical and subtropical areas from Florida to Brazil on the Atlantic Coast and from Nicaragua to Peru on the Pacific Coast. The mangrove tree crab feed mostly on the leaves on the red mangrove (R. mangle), however, they prefer to feed on animal matter as much as they possibly can. Their appearance is very beautiful with large eyes set apart from each other and the carapace is wider at the top than at the bottom of the crab. The mangrove tree crab is a fabulous brown and olive -green color that allows them to blend in with their surrounds and tend to have red of purple markings around their pinchers. They also have tufts of black hair and their legs are pointed at the end to aid them in climbing through the mangroves. These little mangrove tree crabs are preyed on by birds, terrestrial mammals, and larger crabs in the area and have to be able to escape quickly in their environment or be able to hide effectively which they are amazing at. They are naturally able to camouflage themselves but still able to adapt and live in the harsh environment. They are definitely one of the most interesting species within the mangrove ecosystem in my opinion.

We got to see so many of these amazing mangrove tree crabs today everywhere that we look we were either watching them climb through-out the trees or almost grabbing one by accident as we reached for the branches on the mangroves to pull ourselves through the forest in parts to skinny to paddle. It was an amazing experience and definitely something I would want to do again and recommend to other

http://www.wildsouthflorida.com/mangrove.tree.crab.html#.XQWji6Z7m8U

https://www.paddlethefloridakeys.com/