🦀Coconut crab
The coconut crab is a terrestrial species of giant hermit crab, and is also known as the robber crab or palm thief. It is the largest living terrestrial arthropod, with a weight up to 4.1 kg (9 lb). The distance from the tip of one leg to the tip of another can be as wide as 1 m. It is found on islands across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, as far east as the Gambier Islands, Pitcairn Islands, and Caroline Island, and as far west as Zanzibar. While its range broadly shadows the distribution of the coconut palm, the coconut crab has been extirpated from most areas with a significant human population such as mainland Australia and Madagascar.
Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
IUCN Red List assessment, 2020.
- Body mass
- 4 kg
- Body length
- not recorded
- Shoulder height
- not recorded
- Top speed
- not recorded
- Bite force
- not recorded
- Maximum lifespan
- 40 years
Everything we know about the Coconut crab
Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.
Body mass4 kgmaximum recordedSeaLifeBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
SeaLifeBase populates Weight independently of Length; the two are not guaranteed to describe the same individual. Verify before publishing.
Source: SeaLifeBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Carapace width0.2 mmaximum recorded, carapace widthSeaLifeBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: SeaLifeBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Maximum lifespan40 yearsmaximum recordedSeaLifeBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: SeaLifeBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Danger to humanspoisonous to eatSeaLifeBaseDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: SeaLifeBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0
Volume l4 LaverageDetails ↓Hide ↑
Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.
average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.
Not recorded for Coconut crab yet: body length, shoulder height, top speed, bite force.
Family tree
- kingdomAnimalia
- ›phylumArthropoda
- ›classMalacostraca
- ›orderDecapoda
- ›familyCoenobitidae
- ›genusBirgus
- ›speciesBirgus latro
- classCrabs, shrimp & kin · Malacostraca
- orderCrabs, lobsters & shrimp · Decapoda
- familyCoenobitidae
- genusBirgus
All 10 branches ↓Fewer branches ↑
- kingdomMetazoa
- phylumArthropoda
- classCrabs, shrimp & kin · Malacostraca
- subclassEumalacostraca
- superorderEucarida
- orderCrabs, lobsters & shrimp · Decapoda
- suborderPleocyemata
- infraorderAnomura
- familyCoenobitidae
- genusBirgus
More about the Coconut crab
Animals caught on camera
Real footage of the animals on this site — hunting, fighting, and getting on with it.
Compare the Coconut crab
Pick a tool — the Coconut crab is already selected.
Compare every stat with any other animal.
Stand them on the same floor and see who's bigger.
How speed, brain and bite scale with body size. This animal isn't in the sample yet.
See where it sits in the tree of life.