‘Pretty gruesome’: giant coconut crab seen hunting birds

Researcher in remote Chagos Islands says he saw crabs, previously thought to be scavengers, hunting and killing seabird

A large, land-dwelling crustacean known as a coconut or robber crab has been seen hunting and killing a seabird, the first time such behaviour has been observed in the species.

The phenomenon was witnessed by a researcher, Mark Laidre of Dartmouth College, while he was studying the giant crabs in the remote Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, New Scientist reported.