Hermitages for homeless hermit crabs

Did you know that:

• 30%-60% of hermit crabs have inadequate housing?
• Humans are creating an unprecedented shell shortage
• There is hope...

The Hand Up Project: Attempting to Meet the New Needs of Natural Life-Forms

Via 3 Quarks.

Comments

[rob helpy-chalk]

The odd thing is that I could think of no philosophical objections to what she was doing, right up to the point where she introduced corporate on the crab's shell. I mean sure, it was artsy and ironic, but I think we need more art and irony in our ecosystem restoration projects.

[LizardBreath]

The non-biodegradability of the new shells?

[Chuchundra]

What's wrong with the new shells now being biodegradable? Assuming the hermit crab species survives, a thousand years from now some little bugger may be using the same plastic shell that's its distance ancestor wears today. Now that's recycling better than anything we puny humans could come up with.

[Njorl]

Would they be less biodegradable than calcium carbonate shells? There are biodegradable plastics. If it desireable that it be so.

The question I wonder about is when should we care? Many species become extinct due to the actions of other species. Humans are not the only exterminators. True, we are the biggest culprit nowadays, but the difference is of degree.

I also doubt that hermit crabs are really in any danger. I find it much more likely that hermit crabs are experiencing a population boom due to humans killing off their predators. It is much more likely that lack of predation is allowing hermit crabs to survive more easily without homes than that there is a shell shortage due to collecting. I would interpret this data as a cause to investigate the state of hermit crab predators, not a need to design RVs for them.

[Njorl]

" Now that's recycling better than anything we puny humans could come up with."

Umm, exactly which species came up with the plastic shell?

[John]

I'll toot my own horn a little bit here. I had some thoughts concerning this project a while ago.

[antstomp]

I like artists mixing in with the sciences, but I find those who dabble but don't really immerse themselves kind of annoying. I find it telling that there were no pictures of a hermit crab inside her protype man-made shell. I like the idea of making an artificial casing for hermit crabs, but if you are going to publish an article about it, make a casing that would actually fit their needs. I find it hard to believe she has ever actually seen a hermit crab out of its shell and came up with that design. It just wouldn't fit right. It allows no depth for retreat, too wide an opening to be closed with their armored legs, and a sharp lip with little room behind it for their abdomen.

cool idea, but the design still needs some work and text belies some misunderstandings on the part of the author about hermit crab biology.

[Phoenician in a time of Romans]

Alas, this may be necessary in the future.

[Abbas Raza]

I once asked a friend of mine who had recently become vegetarian because she didn't want to animals killed for her sake anymore, whether it was also her opinion that we should not only not kill animals and leave them alone, but also actively help them? For example, if it is possible for us to develop a tofu-based (or other) food for lions, should we start providing them with it, so that antelope can live longer lives with less fear? In other words, what about our obligations to the quality of animals' lives in the wild? Do we have any? This case brings up these issues again, in a way.

[rob helpychalk]

Abbas:

This has been an active area of debate amongst animal rights philosophers. Actually, you raise two issues that are debated, whether we have a duty to help animals, and whether carnivorism in nonhuman animals is a moral wrong that we should prevent if we could.

The standard line from Singer and Regan is that a lion's carnivorism is not a moral wrong because a lion isn't a moral agent. But there is a strong argument from Jamieson, using analogies to accidental deaths, that says we have a duty to prevent carnivorism in nonhuman animals anyway.

So far as I know, Steve Saponitz is the only philosopher who bites the bullet and says "yes, if we were able to feed all the lions some tofu concoction, we would have a moral duty to do so."

[John Emerson]

A friend of mine converted her cat to vegetarian food, and tghe cat remained healthy but begged for food constantly for weeks until my friend couldn't stand it any more.

Perhaps you'd have to start them as kittens.

[rob helpychalk]

I think you'd need to wait more than a few weeks to see the long term health effects, and the begging for food indicates that some are in the offing.

I've met people who claimed that they kept their dog or cat vegetarian, but I've never believed them.

One thing that obscures the issue is that you can keep an animal alive for a fairly long period of time on an inappropriate diet. Most cattle are fed a slurry of corn, farm waste and antibiotics, when they should be eating grass. They live long enough for industry purposes, but it is hardly a life worth living, even for a cow.

[Phoenician in a time of Romans]

I think you'd need to wait more than a few weeks to see the long term health effects, and the begging for food indicates that some are in the offing.

'Cos, you know, cats never beg for food otherwise...

[ajay]

Stephen Jay Gould wrote one of his saddest essays about a species of hermit crab on (possibly) Madagascar (or somewhere) that can only use the shells of one species of snail. The snail in question has been extinct since the 19th century, which means that the crab, through no fault of its own, is also on the way out. ("Nature's Odd Couples"). This project could really help there...

[joshau schmitt]

i think your really nice for helping that hermit crab

tHaNk YoU.

[Loryn Turner]

Can you maybe put more pics of hermit crabs on the web? I'm sorry I just thought that there were too many things about other people emailing you! Thanks!

[kelsi moore]

hi i think its very nice for u to do this

[Leroy Jenkins]

Am I the only person completely abhorent of the idea of plastic shells with "Nike", "Starbucks", and "McDonalds" emblazoned across them being dumped by the bushell along our coasts...just to 'help' some damn hermit crabs?!?!

As Marx said: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."