Fiddler Crabs

Fiddler Crabs..what strange little creatures. If you sit quietly near the water's edge at low tide, multitudes of the tiny critters will slip out of the marsh on to the mud. They are there to feed. These lilliputian crustaceans can be seen scooping their meals out of the mud. They eat both decaying plant and animal matter that has been washed in by the tide. It is the male of the species that has given it the unusual name. Having one small claw and one "way-out-of -proportion" claw he looks mighty strange. The name "Fiddler Crab" comes from the male's feeding habits. The rapid motion of his small claw from the mud to his mouth bears a strong resemblance to someone moving a bow across a fiddle. The small claw being the bow and the larger one being the fiddle. He uses the large claw to scare off intruders and to attract females by waving it wildly about in the air. "Hey, Look! My claw is bigger than yours!" The female, on the other hand, has two small claws.

There is an undying folklore here of how the Fiddler Crab can actually predict the severity of the coming hurricane season and the intensity of an approaching storm. Being land dwellers, these crabs dig burrows or tunnels into the mud around the marsh. Usually, with high tide, Fiddler Crabs retreat back into their burrows and literally close the door! They block the passageway with a mud ball to keep the water out. Sometimes you will see almost a mass migration of these tiny critters out of the marshes. They can be found anywhere, in the garden, on porches and if allowed access..even inside the house. It is almost as if they are seeking higher ground, hence the prediction of a bad storm with very high storm surge. Then again, maybe it is a mating ritual since hurricane season and Fiddler Crab mating season are pretty much at the same time. It is more fun to believe the old stories that are told by the local fishermen than to hand it all to science!