The lagoon is shallow, a place of ripping currents and vast sand flats, and is so big that the whole of Manhattan could fit inside it - twice.
Lindsay Chong Seng explains that they will eat anything including other dead tortoises, any vegetation they can reach and, intriguingly, a kind of algae which they seem to cultivate by eaving their droppings in tidal pools.
One endemic grass has even evolved so that its flower-spikes turn downwards from the stem so that the reptiles do not eat it while they are grazing.
Aldabra is valued by biologists as an ecosystem dominated by reptiles, something that has not been seen elsewhere since the time of the dinosaurs.
... the two species of land crabs that live on Aldabra, including the coconut crab with a leg span of more than three feet (1m) and weighing up to 10lb (4.5kg).
The article reads like an explorers story from natgeo and shows coordinates. ^ coconut crab.
Comments
Like crab.
Wonder how secure their method of doing this is. I'm sure You can probably just sail up to the island and dock.
...a tortoise, that is.
is the milk and flesh any good?
A couple cook Island guys I've worked with reckon they taste a bit sweeter than crab due the coconut diet. From the description they gave me they're pretty big but not as big as those MFs :eek:
One of them was saying his grandmother use to tie him to a coconut tree @ night where they use to husk the coconuts, as punishment for a major fuckup. (during the coconut crab run) He was like 10yo & no shirt on. These things use to climb up him to get the coconuts in the trees. What a bitch.