Vanuatu: Coconut Crab

That magnificent creature above is a Birgus lato, or a coconut crab! Coconut crabs are quite the delicacy in Vanuatu. Before my trip, I'd heard of Vanuatu's famous coconut crab, but I assumed that it was a way of preparing crab, not an actual species. D'oh! These crabs are called coconut crab because they eat coconut!

When I was in Vanuatu, coconut crabs were available in many restaurants but - gasp! - I never ate one. There were 2 reasons for this.

First, they're endangered! Apparently sometimes the Vanuatu government places restrictions on harvesting, to protect the population. No bans were in place at the time, but I did not feel comfortable ordering them.

And second, they are one of the freakiest creatures I have EVER seen.

During our trip, we went on a (rather disappointing and expensive) "river kayak" tour, at Blue Water Island resort. The website makes the resort look shiny and new, but in reality it is very tired and old - our tour guide (who was lovely!!) told us there were no guests at all. It's half an hour out of town, in the middle of nowhere, and it felt like it was on the verge of repossession. I'm not sure if it was because of the poor location, or maybe the owners just stopped caring.

They did have some cool stuff though, including pools where you could feed reef sharks and beautiful big turtles. And a couple of cages of coconut crabs!

Argh! It looks like a massive creepy spider!



Check out those massive claws.

According to Wikipedia...

The coconut crab climbs trees to eat coconuts or fruit... Coconut crabs cut holes into coconuts with their strong claws and eat the contents; this behaviour is unique in the animal kingdom.

It was only a couple of days later, on a much better snorkelling tour to Paradise Cove, that we realised just how strong those freaky coconut crab-claws must be.

Aah... Paradise Cove

Part of our tour included a coconut demonstration, where our tour guide broke down a coconut.


The coconut is twisted on a stick to loosen the husk...

...and he uses a lot of strength to pry the husk away from the coconut.

Apparently the husk is used in many ways - for toothbrushes, as bedding for chickens, for kids to play with as little sailboats, to make bags and more!

Then he whacks the coconut several times with a big rock before he breaks it open...

... and we can all feast on the sweet coconut within.

It took him about 10 minutes all up, using a lot of strength and a sharp stick and rock. And these coconut crabs can do it WITH THEIR CLAWS!!


Previous visitors to Vanuatu - was anyone else more adventurous than me? Or less concerned by dwindling coconut crab populations? What did you think of it? (I know Ed ate some!)

***EDIT*** The first photo was taken at our hotel, held up by one of the lovely (and obliging) chefs, when a few of us sneaked to the kitchen to look at the many fascinating coconut crabs that had just arrived.***

That magnificent creature above is a Birgus lato, or a coconut crab! Coconut crabs are quite the delicacy in Vanuatu. Before my trip, I'd heard of Vanuatu's famous coconut crab, but I assumed that it was a way of preparing crab, not an actual species. D'oh! These crabs are called coconut crab because they eat coconut!

When I was in Vanuatu, coconut crabs were available in many restaurants but - gasp! - I never ate one. There were 2 reasons for this.

First, they're endangered! Apparently sometimes the Vanuatu government places restrictions on harvesting, to protect the population. No bans were in place at the time, but I did not feel comfortable ordering them.

And second, they are one of the freakiest creatures I have EVER seen.

During our trip, we went on a (rather disappointing and expensive) "river kayak" tour, at Blue Water Island resort. The website makes the resort look shiny and new, but in reality it is very tired and old - our tour guide (who was lovely!!) told us there were no guests at all. It's half an hour out of town, in the middle of nowhere, and it felt like it was on the verge of repossession. I'm not sure if it was because of the poor location, or maybe the owners just stopped caring.

They did have some cool stuff though, including pools where you could feed reef sharks and beautiful big turtles. And a couple of cages of coconut crabs!

Argh! It looks like a massive creepy spider!



Check out those massive claws.

According to Wikipedia...

The coconut crab climbs trees to eat coconuts or fruit... Coconut crabs cut holes into coconuts with their strong claws and eat the contents; this behaviour is unique in the animal kingdom.

It was only a couple of days later, on a much better snorkelling tour to Paradise Cove, that we realised just how strong those freaky coconut crab-claws must be.

Aah... Paradise Cove

Part of our tour included a coconut demonstration, where our tour guide broke down a coconut.


The coconut is twisted on a stick to loosen the husk...

...and he uses a lot of strength to pry the husk away from the coconut.

Apparently the husk is used in many ways - for toothbrushes, as bedding for chickens, for kids to play with as little sailboats, to make bags and more!

Then he whacks the coconut several times with a big rock before he breaks it open...

... and we can all feast on the sweet coconut within.

It took him about 10 minutes all up, using a lot of strength and a sharp stick and rock. And these coconut crabs can do it WITH THEIR CLAWS!!


Previous visitors to Vanuatu - was anyone else more adventurous than me? Or less concerned by dwindling coconut crab populations? What did you think of it? (I know Ed ate some!)

***EDIT*** The first photo was taken at our hotel, held up by one of the lovely (and obliging) chefs, when a few of us sneaked to the kitchen to look at the many fascinating coconut crabs that had just arrived.***