Every June, a strange phenomenon occurs on the coast of Australia's Port Phillip Bay: countless shells of spider crabs appear on the beach! It's so dense that people can't help but worry about what happened to these spider crabs!
Professor Julian Finn and his research team put a lot of effort into this
Studies have found that about 100,000 spider crabs arrive in Filippi Bay a day or two before the full moon in June. At first scientists thought they were breeding, but Professor Julian observed that this was not the case. Their purpose is to dehull
In the beginning, the spider crab did a strange thing that hurt himself- clamping his eyes with pliers, which was actually a prelude to a dramatic change
It is to release the dehulling hormone so that the next dehulling works
Spider crabs suck water into their old shells and use water pressure to reveal their new shells. Its body gradually grew larger, and its body size became twice as large.
The old shell is covered with a new shell, like a hat
Forcibly detaching the body from its old shell is not an easy task, so it must rely on the help of the evil of the currents of water and the waves.
They get rid of their old shells by constantly tumbling and breaking free
The body of the spider crab has completely broken away from its old shell
Unfolding new legs is another challenge. After some struggle, the new foot was finally free, and the shelling work was perfectly completed
Shelling is a big challenge, and for some spider crabs, the old shell is their final destination
A spider crab that dies after a failed dehulling
The new body is soft and fleshy, so it takes about an hour for its legs to harden enough to stand up
During this time, they were defenseless, and they had just passed the perilous period of dehulling and faced another crisis: being eaten by other marine creatures
Mink is one of the predators. Their large bodies are the best weapon for crab hunting, and they have already enjoyed good food during the migration of spider crabs, not to mention crabs that have just shed their shells
Even starfish come to hunt for soft and weak spider crabs. They only grasp the spider crab with their sucker feet and dissolve the crab's feet with gastric juice.
Seals are the most fond of eating spider crabs, and this scene is naturally indispensable to it
This journey of dehulling can be described as extremely sinister, but most of the spider crabs survived and returned to the deep sea
The secret of the large-scale migration of spider crabs is finally revealed: the currents in Philip's Bay help spider crabs to dehull, and the huge team increases the chances of spider crabs surviving