creature

Caribbean Hermit Crab

Coenobita clypeatus

Where to See It Beaches, coastal scrub and gardens, often well inland

Known across the islands as the soldier crab, this little hermit borrows an empty sea snail shell for a home and trades up to a larger one as it grows. It spends its adult life on land, sometimes surprisingly far from the sea, and you will often hear one trundling its shell across a path before you see it. Please leave shells on the beach — a soldier crab may be house-hunting.

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