Ok, maybe the below is a bit of an irreverent depiction of these snazzy, colorful crustaceans, but sitting at a computer most days for many hours of the day makes me a bit snippy at times; gotta have a little fun every now and then 🙂
And these guys and gals were a bit snippy, scuttling away as I tried to take photos, clawing all over while flailing up, down and around the rocks.
Then a wave would hit, and they wash off and wash back up drenched in frothy sea foam and I wouldn’t get a shot. The nerve. I call that a bit snippy.
Their formal names are ‘Grapsus grapsus’ and ‘Percnon gibbesi’. The version (species) found in South America is Grapsus grapsus. A common name is ‘red rock crab’ and that makes sense. The ones we saw were beautiful shades of dark orange and reddish in color, some with a touch of baby blue.
Sally Lightfoot Crabs are semiterrestial, meaning “living mostly on land but requiring a moist environment or nearby water, especially as a breeding site. Most amphibians are semiterrestrial”. Source: Dictionary.com
They are found in many areas of the Galapagos Islands. All the shots I have included here are from an evening excursion to Floreana Island during our time on the good ship cruise ship M/V Santa Cruz.
You can see Sally Lightfoot Crabs and get some photographs during a beach trip to Garrapatero Beach also.
Garrapatero Beach is on Santa Cruz Island, near the Cerro Mesa Ecological Reserve; make sure to visit and spend time enjoying watching the Giant Galapagos Turtles.
More Galapagos Islands Articles:
Galapagos Islands Lizards & Iguanas
Playa de la Estacion on Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island
Center for Land Tortoises at Charles Darwin Research Center on Puerto Ayora
Hiking on San Cristobal Island, Galapagos
Las Grietas Lagoon on Santa Cruz Island
Land Iguana Restoration Center on Puerto Ayora
Charles Darwin Research Center