Ingenious 'Car Shoes' hack saves migratory crabs from getting crushed under vehicles

In an attempt to save migratory crabs from getting crushed under cars, a lodge owner from Australia's Christmas Island came up with a technological hack.

According to international media reports, Chris Bay fitted 'car shoes' that resembles train snow ploughs in front of his car tires to nudge the crabs which cross the Christmas Island forest in millions to reach the shore-line in order to breed. While speaking to a media outlet, Bay said that he believes that his invention will actually do the trick to save the crabs. 

In order to reach the destination, the crabs usually march through the roads which inevitably put them at a higher risk of getting run over by vehicles. Bay said to save the crabs several people had tried their hands at finding a viable solution, but unfortunately, none have succeeded till now.

He also said the crabs are in full migration swing and to save the species, the national park closes the roads to allow the crabs the safe passage, however, to enable guests at his lodge running during the migration he developed the crab-safe attachment. 

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He said, “While some guests love to walk in through all the crabs, staff -- as well as supplies, guests bags and elderly guests, etcetera -- are not able to walk in. So I had to develop this crab-safe attachment system -- the ‘crab-mobile’ -- to enable us to keep running the lodge during migration, so we can get guests, supplies and staff to/from the lodge without impacting the crabs.” 

READ: Plastic Pollution Kills Over 500,000 Hermit Crabs On Cocos And Henderson Islands

Half a million dead

While Bay came up with an ingenious hack to save the species, there are still millions of crabs that die every year. According to a report published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, an estimated 5,70,000 hermit crabs die after climbing into plastic debris confusing it for empty shells every year.

Hermit crabs do not have shells of their own and use empty shells or hollow objects as protection. The empty plastic container and bottles on the beach create a trap for hermit crabs searching for food or water that may be found in the containers.

(With ANI inputs)

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