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Published: September 5th 2010
600 Slaughtered
How can so many get killed, they are big and hardly move, Blog Day 667
Well, it has certainly been a busy week, and I haven’t got a clue where it has gone.
I type this initially in my office at 6.00am of Friday morning 03/09/2010, I have a tea, that I haven’t started yet and just had 2 slices of toast and jam.
I am just typing the outline of this week so far, so I can finish it and post it over the weekend.
Monday morning, was different, I had hired the scooter as you know, so my first journey in was an adventure in itself.
I was up and away at 5.16 am bike started, pack on and I was heading off to work, I had forgotten the pleasure to being on two wheels again, but was mindful of being pretty careful riding in on the Phosphate roads, making sure I didn’t hit a patch of gravel and having the front wheel wash out on me.
Only having shorts on and a business shirt and a helmet of course, If I had had to explain to Caroline, of yet another “off” on the bike, I think she would have gone ,Ape at me, so
please don’t tell her it will be our secret.
At 5.16 in the morning, it was still dark, but lovely and warm, I was buzzing along being extra careful of the Robber Crabs, that were pretty plentiful in the road, just doing there thing.
They so remind of Elderly men, just wandering around, very slowly, not really paying attention to anything, but I think really this is not the case.
These amazing prehistoric looking Animals are quite unique and so I am told can live to at least a 100 years old.
Having the benefit of internet access whilst at work , I have taken the opportunity to do a little bit of research on these creatures.
The coconut crab, Birgus latro, is the largest land-living arthropod in the world, and is probably at the upper limit of how big terrestrial animals with exoskeletons can become in today's atmosphere. The species inhabits the coastal forest regions of many Indo-Pacific islands, although localized extinction has occurred where the crab is sympatric with man.
It is also called the robber crab or palm thief, because some coconut crabs are rumored to steal shiny items such as pots and
Poon San
Just a road name silverware from houses and tents. Another name is terrestrial hermit crab, due to the use of shells by the young animals; however, there are other terrestrial hermit crabs which do not get rid of the shell even as adults
These titans of the crustacean world are the largest land crabs on earth. They have formidable pincers which could easily take off a finger, but they're not quite as fearsome as they look. They live mostly by scavenging, which is why you often see them gathered along the roadside during the red crab migration, cleaning up the inevitable road-kills. It's a food bounty for them, one of the reasons the population here is so large; in fact, it's the largest in the world.
Adults are about 1 m (about 40 inches) from head to tail and weigh about 4.5 kg (10 pounds). The full-grown adult crab ranges in colouring from light violet to brown and deep purple. Young adults are brown, with black stripes on their legs. The crab uses two large chelae, or pincers, to pound or chip open coconuts.
On my journey in to work, my eyes where fixed to the road making sure I din’t
Poon San
Just a Road Name come in to contact with a Robber crab, without any doubt in my mind I would be flying over the handle bars if I did.
Without thoughts for myself, I would feel awful if my stupidity and lack of awareness caused me to injure or kill one of these truly amazing creatures.
Talking of this we had a group e-mail yesterday from our boss on the island, who had had an e-mail from Christmas Island Parks and Wildlife services who had said that recently a more than usual amount of Robber crabs had been killed on the road and we all must slow down and take care.
I whole heartedly agree with this sentiment..
My mind has started to wander I need to re focus.
Ah yes my journey in, the beauty of being on two wheels with an open face helmets is smells, as I ride along certain sections of the road through the jungle, it has different smells and also different pockets of temperature that I feel on my face, it is awesome.
I wouldn’t know the difference between Jungle or Forrest but the locals call it jungle, so for this blog,
its jungle.
On Tuesday evening I was invited to a surprise Birthday party for one of the guys Wives, who’ birthday it was.
The are both New Zealanders and Te Rangi’marier is a Maury and it took me ages to be able to pronounce her name. (Te Rangi-Mari-eh.
We drove out to the Casino, and about 20 of us had a great meal, again I had the Oysters Kilpatrick, and nearly wet my self laughing when a young British Girl came out of the Kitchen and said, “Oysters Fitzpatrick”
I have to say, this is the second time I have had them and they were not a patch on the ones our dear friends Cliff and Sue cooked for us when we were in Port Augusta last year.
But a good time was had by all and its was a fairly late night.
I am typing this from my office on Sunday morning, I have put in a straight seven days so far and I have got heaps to do, the good thing is when I need a break from my work I just type a few lines on this blog.
Yesterday morning
Robber Crab
There are no even a moving Target when I was whizzing down the Phosphate road I was 15 minutes kater than usual as, well it was Saturday, dawn had broken and the day light was rising, those 15 minutes make such a difference to the Robber crabs as I didn’t see any on my way in, they had clocked off and gone to bed.
What I did see though really shocked me, I guess Pares and Wildlife had written this on the road it said,
The 600 Hundredth Robber Crab to die in 2010, that is just terrible, 600 of the creatures slaughtered by mans stupidity.
I worked from 6.00am until lunch time, then went back to do my weekly washing, clean my room and have a kip, I can feel a cold coming on and feeling a bit rough.
We went to the Skanky Ho last night for some dinner then went to the open air cinema to watch the Film Killers which the last film I saw with Caroline before I left Canberra.
I was in bed fairly early as I had an early start this morning, and here I am again at my desk.
So that’s it really,
nothing to exciting just a record of my week.
Andy
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Mrs KJ
non-member comment
Secrets eh!
Mr KJ, if you want to keep a secret then you have to rely on your wife not reading the blog..... ;-) Mrs KJ