A monstrous crab unexpectedly joined golfers for a round on Christmas Island and made off with some of their gear.
Pictures show the huge crab clutching onto the ends of a man’s golf clubs after it appeared to have climbed up his golf bag.
Christmas Island local Paul Buhner identified the thief as a coconut or “robber” crab.
“And that’s why we call them a robber crab … And we have not put this here, this has climbed up here while we’ve been putting out,” he says.
“He’s got a bloody good grip on it – look at that.”
“Friday golf is a religion on the island. Even if you can’t play you go out and support the boys and have a beer and that’s basically what I was doing,” he said.
Christmas Island, an Australian territory located in the Indian Ocean about 1500km west of the mainland, is famous for its endemic red crabs that blanket the streets during their annual migration.
But the island is also home to the coconut crab, the world’s largest terrestrial arthropod, which are colloquially known as robber crabs for having a penchant for stealing anything they can get their claws on.
At their largest, coconut crabs can weigh more than 4kg and grow up to 1m in width from the tip of one leg to the tip of another.
— Golf Monthly (@GolfMonthly) January 4, 2022