St. Croix - Crabs

Hermit crabs, also known as soldier crabs (Coenobita clypeatus), are abundant on St. Croix. It seems almost every stucco wall has a hermit crab traversing its surface, or scurrying along the bottom edge. In the evening, if you stop near some brush, you can hear the clicking of hermit crabs bumping into their surroundings and each other.

Sometimes they approach the water's edge in order to feed. This particular afternoon, the beach was teeming with them, and I picked up a handful.


Walking along the beach, ghost crabs (Ocypode quadrata) can trick your eyes. Was that a bit of sand or dust, or an animal? They move at startling speeds, can change direction in an instant, and are usually not far from a burrow. I did manage to catch a few small ones, though.

One of my favorite crustaceans is the mole crab (Emerita sp.). I've found them at almost every beach I've visited, from the North Eastern coast of the U.S., to Florida, to various islands in the Caribbean. They are small and round, hardly resembling crabs at all (they are in the same order, Decapoda, but a different infraorder). They live right at the shoreline, where the waves are crashing and receding. There they burrow backwards just deep enough so that their antennae can reach into the water to capture passing plankton. These antennae can be a give-away to their presence, as you can see the "V" shaped ripples they leave as the waves recede. On beaches with rockier sand, like where we were, they can be more difficult to detect. Then it comes down to lucky guessing by digging into the sand. You need to be careful, though, that they do not hear you coming. The mole crabs will dig deeper or change positions if they can feel your footsteps nearby. I find digging up mole crabs to be a great trick when there are curious children on the beach. This time, there were none around, but I got to teach my best friend how to catch them.

St. Croix - Lizards

My family often traveled to Florida when I was younger, and my favorite and most vivid memories of those trips include catching Anole lizards.

Even when we went to Disney World when I was 10 years old... I don't remember too many rides, but I do remember that I caught 50 lizards that week.

I only caught one Anole (Anolis acutus) during this trip to St. Croix, as they're a bit more wily and wild than they are in Florida. Though maybe I'm just loosing my touch as I'm getting older?
I encountered a few other reptile species as well. I caught a little Common Dwarf Gecko (Sphaerodactylus macrolepis), but did not get a photo of it. I also got my hands on a few Mediterranean House Geckos (Hemidactylus mabouia) - two adults, and one youngster.

We got to see a few iguanas (Iguana iguana), but they were of course too shy and quick to be captured. Not sure I'd even want to try, with the considerably dangerous tails and claws they have! We did feed them apples, though.
There are 11 species of lizards on the island of St. Croix, but so far these are the only ones I have personally encountered. There is an endangered species, the St. Croix ground lizard (Amevia polops), which only lives on two small islands just off the coast of St. Croix (Green Cay and Protestant Cay, while efforts are in place to introduce them to Buck Island). They were wiped out on the main island due to the introduction of the Mongoose, which has decimated much of the wildlife on St. Croix and other Caribbean islands.

Sadly, there are no snakes on St. Croix, except for the little Blind snake (Typhlops richardii). Very small, secretive and fossorial, they are difficult to find.

St. Croix - Tarpon

Tarpon (Megalops atlanticus) are very large game fish - they grow up to 8' long, and put up quite a fight when hooked.

They also can be tamed to come for dinner.

There is a restaurant on the boardwalk in downtown Christiansted, St. Croix, called Rum Runners. Every night a group of tarpon, usually looks to be about a dozen or more, swim up and wait to be fed. They are carnivores, and will eat just about anything that fits in their mouths. The restaurant throws out scraps, and the fish entertain the guests as they flop around in the shallow water. This scene is often upsetting to fishermen who pay a lot of money to catch these fish in the open ocean!
Now, whenever we see these fish, my dad has to make the same Three Stooges joke every time.
Fast forward to 1:45... you'll get it.

Tetrio Sphinx

My favorite caterpillar! Pseudosphinx tetrio.I've only encountered these on St. Croix, but they range all the way from Brazil to the southern United States. They are HUGE. The one on my index finger is the smallest one I've seen yet. Amusingly, their heads and tails seem to stay about the same size.
They feed on trees of the Apocynaceae family... and they poop a LOT. There are some trees that grow over the top of the fence around the pool where we stayed, and the poolside was littered with caterpillar poop.

Some of my further observations -
Their tails move up and down with each body movement forward, which looks quite silly.
They do not like each other - when two caterpillars were brought close to each other, they would thrash around and try to bite each other.
Their true legs have some sharp claws!
They can not bite people, at least not enough to break the skin.
They can spit up some nasty smelling green liquid.
They smell a bit, rather like the plant they are eating.

I also encountered an adult moth - they are not nearly as flamboyant as the caterpillars.
I still can hardly believe such large colorful caterpillars exist, they're next on my list of plushies I need to make.

St. Croix

Hello everyone, I'm back!
Spent a wonderful week on St. Croix with my father and best friend. We took lots of photos, including three disposable underwater cameras... anxiously waiting for them to be developed.

Over the next week or so, I'll be posting with themes about the wildlife we encountered.

Here is a teaser - me with my favorite caterpillar. Do you know which species it is?

On vacation

On my way to the Virgin Islands tomorrow morning - I'll be back at the end of next week with lots of stories and photos.

Another snapper

Well, I made all sorts of claims yesterday... and today while driving to the gym, we came across a snapping turtle in the middle of the road! I could not swerve to avoid it, so I drove over it so it wouldn't hit the tires.

I turned around and found a place to park up the road, and ran down to where it sat, apparently unperturbed by all the cars driving around/over it. On the way over a man slowed his car, saying he would help - I told him I needed none. He parked behind my car, and my mom assured him "Don't worry, she's a zoologist."

I got to the turtle, and she was none too happy. I bet this one was freshly done with laying her eggs. About the same size as the other one I had dealt with, but most of her shell was covered in mud, in some places several centimeters thick. I realized I would not be able to grab her shell correctly, as my fingers would surely slip as she lunged at me (which she did several times).

So I grabbed her right at the base of her tail, and placed my other hand under her shell to steady her - I figured this way I was better supporting her weight, and she couldn't bite me.

Once in the grass on the other side of the road, I tried to shoo her away from the roadside - but she was not cooperating. She kept turning to snap at me. I could not get behind her, as there was an electric fence in the way - I did not realize it was an electric fence until I accidentally brushed my hand against it. Yikes!

After a few minutes I decided to leave her be, as she was about 8 feet from the road and would hopefully turn around and continue toward the farm pond nearby. On the way back from the gym, she was nowhere to be seen.

I'm always happy to help an animal cross the road :)

Snapper

What a wildlife filled couple of days!
Yesterday I was summoned to a neighbor's house, to see what I could do about a snapping turtle in their garden.

Sure enough, it was a big beautiful Chelydra serpentina.
I would estimate the shell length was about 12", and the tail was at least another 6". It had a bad right eye, mostly closed up, though I could not observe any damage.

Now, removing it from the garden, where it had become trapped, was the issue. Don't want a big snapper around kids and pets.

I remembered from my reptile field guide (and a question on my herpetology final exam) that you can lift a snapping turtle safely by the tail. Their tails are very thick and sturdy, and having never handled a snapper before, I thought I'd try it out. I picked it up without much protest (though a few snaps into the air were rather alarming), and carried it into the woods to a stream (which it could follow to a pond).

Now, after some more reading, I've discovered (as I had suspected) that it is actually not a good idea to pick up a snapping turtle this way - it can damage the tail or spine. The best method is to grasp the back end of the shell, if you can get a good enough grip. You can also grasp the front edge of the shell above the head, with your other hand holding the back end. This seems to be the most appropriate way to hold them, but it's a little intimidating!
Like this... (original photo found here)
So if the turtle returns and needs to be removed, I might try picking it up that way, if the turtle seems calm enough. Now I know better (and I think that field guide section on collection techniques should be changed). Though I might also just do a tail lift into a bucket to carry it!

I was also curious about the sex, but did not feel like poking around too long and further annoying the turtle, especially without being sure what I should look for. I did have my neighbor get a photo of the underside of the turtle, though, while I was holding it. I can see the cloacal opening is rather close to the base of the tail. According to the diagrams in this study, that would make her a female.

Have you ever encountered a snapping turtle? Did you try to handle it? Chase it away? What techniques did or didn't work? I won't always be available when a snapper visits one of our neighbors, and want to brainstorm some other techniques for shooing a large angry turtle into the woods.

Arachnophobes look away

I found one of my favorite spiders today, the Fishing spider (Dolomedes tenebrosus).

Whenever someone comes to me, holds their hands 6" apart, and proclaims "the spider was THIS BIG!" I know that it was a fishing spider, and that their memory was a bit exaggerated. Their maximum legspan is about 3", which is still impressive for a spider in the Northeast US.

They are not dangerous, as evidenced below. Though perhaps it's only by luck that I play with so many spiders and have not yet been bitten. I think this species is particularly beautiful.
This is what I'm sure will freak some people out... I was letting her crawl all over me, and got a short video clip of her running up my arm. Those toes tickle!

Injured tree frog

The neighborhood kids brought me a surprise today, that they found in their pool - a fat female gray tree frog (Hyla versicolor). She had the most beautiful shades of green in her markings, but I noticed one flaw - her left hind foot was hanging off and mostly missing, with her bare leg bone exposed. She seemed to get along fine, though - looked well fed and active.
She has been released in my backyard, as the pond is rather a hotspot for gray tree frogs during the mating season. And there are no pools nearby to confuse her.