The Digger and The Waver. Also the Cutter...?

The digger and the waver I'm refering to is the crustacean that can be found on our mudflats of the mangroves forest. Most crustaceans are diggers. They dig into the mud to make tunnels while aerating the soil at the same time. What about the waver? Ever wonder which crustacean family that does the waving? Fiddler crab (Family: ocypodidae, Genus: uca). Particularly the male that has only one abnormally enlarged claw. A female doesn't have the large one. Depending on the waving action, it may be a display of courtship or even a territory defense.

So, what about being a cutter? If you are curious to find out, click on this link (please be patient with lots of shaking at the beginning and is not a HD movie. I'm aiming to buy a camera with a HD video...soon) :

What you had just watched was a uca vocan cutting a piece of mud to close the burrow when the tide was rising up. Once the burrow closed, the fiddler crab did some patching work so it helped to seal it from water. As a result, the air will be trapped within the tunnel and the fiddler crab will be able to survive till next low tide.

With the right timing, some patience and then a perfect cut. I wonder how he did it without having to measure. Wow, nature is awesome!

I wonder why homosapiens claim themselves as superior and clever...? Where did that come from, huh?

Here is an information posted on how a fiddler eyes work. Click :

http://wildshores.blogspot.com/2009/10/eye-of-fiddler.html

And here is another information on how a female fiddler crab has the ability to defend her territory how-do-girl-fiddler-crabs-defend.

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Question that A Layman Asks

It was one of those dreadful mornings when I had to attend this sort of irrelevant morning briefings. One of the issues brought up was the cleanliness of the resort's beach. As usual, normal garbage and lots of logs.

So, this boss asked me loudly, "So, where those logs came from?" All eyes turned to me.

As this is just being me, I can be plain blunt and direct, so I replied, "Trees". Everyone burst into laughter. I heard the boss mumbled, "... a stupid answer for a stupid question..." . Yup, who is being silly here. If a person would realise that rubbish on the beach will eventually return to the sea at high tide and float to another beach. Then such person would not have asked such question. How will I know where the logs would come from when they are not tagged and monitored by a GPS? They obviously came from tress. There are trees on the limestone hills and next to the hills will be the sea.

I didn't mean to tease him. Well, a straight forward answer for a straight forward question. Point blank. I knew he didn't like it. There goes my bonus this year.

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