Home is Where the Shell is

By Lindsay Bradshaw, Animal Care Manager

First things first, take a moment to picture your house.  It probably has these important characteristics: a kitchen, a bathroom, bedrooms, and a roof.  We humans need to have a safe, warm, and dry place to call home.  Animals all have homes too, but they are pretty different than our idea of what a home is.  Can you think of a good home for an owl?  A tree!  What about a home for a squirrel?  A burrow!  And what about a clownfish? An anemone!  Homes come in many varieties to suit the needs of each animal. 

Today, I want to introduce you to one of nature’s most resourceful homeowners: the hermit crab! A home for a hermit crab is a shell, but hermit crabs don’t make the shells themselves, so where do they get them?  Believe it or not, they actually recycle them from other animals like snails. Snails also use shells as their homes, but they grow the shell themselves. As the snail gets bigger, so does its shell. When a snail dies, the soft part of the animal decomposes or is eaten by another animal. The hard shell is left behind and becomes the perfect residence for a hermit crab! 

Hermit crabs, unlike other crabs, have a soft abdomen that makes them very vulnerable to predators.  They seek out these leftover snail shells and when they find one that is the right size, they climb right in. They don’t need to worry about renting a U-Haul, or carrying a floppy mattress down a steep staircase. Moving day for a crab only takes a minute or two. Can you imagine carrying your whole house on your back? Hermit crabs carry their shell with them wherever they go and only leave the safety of their shell when they molt or when they outgrow their current residence.

 

At the Living Coast Discovery Center, you can see hermit crabs in their shell homes as part of the Passport to the Pacific exhibit. The crabs are nocturnal so you might not see them scuttling around, but they are excellent climbers and you can see them all together at the tops of their branches. Come check them out!

 

Lindsay Bradshaw is the Animal Care Manager at the Living Coast Discovery Center. She has worked for several animal-focused organizations, including Birch Aquarium at Scripps, Nature and Raptor Center of Pueblo, Maui Ocean Center, and the Vancouver Aquarium.

 

Scarlet Macaws- Rainbows of the Rainforest

by Lindsay Bradshaw, Animal Care Manager

The scarlet macaw is one of the most impressive birds you will ever encounter.  With their vibrant feathers full of a rainbow of colors, they look more like a flying bag of Skittles.  Macaws are rainforest dwellers and many animals living in the jungle are green to camouflage with all the trees and plants.  The scarlet macaw, however, seems to be doing the opposite of camouflaging.  You might be wondering why they sport all those flashy colorful feathers rather than trying to blend into their background.  The fact is, they’re using all those colors as a strategy to stay safe. They are trying to trick their predators!  Scarlet macaws have a type of coloration known as “disruptive coloration”.  Disruptive coloration is most often found on animals that live in groups.  Macaws are flock birds (meaning they live together in large groups) so if a predator, like a large raptor, was ever to try to prey on a scarlet macaw, the whole flock would fly away together and the colors on their feathers would disrupt the shape of the body of the birds, making it very hard for a predator to focus and catch one.  Many other animals use disruptive coloration as a survival strategy- for example the stripes on a zebra or the patterns on many schooling coral reef fish.  So those pretty feathers actually are actually a survival technique! 

The other thing you may notice about a scarlet macaw is the large beak.  Scarlet macaws love to eat fruit, berries, seeds, and nuts.  With that large beak, they can crack through the shells of even the toughest nuts.  And from that very large beak comes a very loud noise.  The Central and South American jungle where they live is a vast habitat and communicating over long distances is essential for scarlet macaws.  Their call is mighty and can be ear piercing for those who hear it up close!

Come visit our beautiful scarlet macaw “Tico” who is here with us as one of our Passport to the Pacific animal ambassadors.  He might even say hello to you so bring your earplugs!  A hello from a parrot like Tico might turn out to be the loudest hello you have ever heard!   

 

Lindsay Bradshaw is the Animal Care Manager at the Living Coast Discovery Center. She has worked for several animal-focused organizations, including Birch Aquarium at Scripps, Nature and Raptor Center of Pueblo, Maui Ocean Center, and the Vancouver Aquarium.