Coconut crab

Birgus latro · The coconut crab is the largest living terrestrial arthropod, found on islands across the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Also called Robber crab, Palm thief, Palm crab.

Coconut crab
Photo: Drew Avery, CC BY 2.0
Coconut crab
Photo: Pseudopanax at English Wikipedia, Public domain
Coconut crab
Photo: fearlessRich, CC BY 2.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumArthropoda
ClassMalacostraca
OrderDecapoda
FamilyCoenobitidae
GenusBirgus
SpeciesBirgus latro

Where it lives

Tropical islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from Zanzibar to the Gambier Islands.

Fun facts

  • Coconut crabs can climb trees up to 10 meters high and survive falls of at least 4.5 meters without injury.
  • Coconut crabs breathe using special organs called branchiostegal lungs and will drown if left in water for more than an hour.
  • Their insect-like sense of smell lets them detect food such as rotting meat, bananas, and coconuts from far away.
  • One coconut crab was recorded killing and eating a rat, and another climbed a tree to catch and eat a seabird.

Play it

The Coconut crab was the creature in a regional daily on November 10, 2026. Can you identify tomorrow's from its photos? Every day brings a new creature to place from kingdom to genus, map and name.

Play today's creature or replay a past daily

Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).