Published17 minutes ago
Hermit crabs all over the world, which scavenge shells as armour for their bodies, are turning increasingly to plastic waste instead.
The conclusion is based on analysis of photos, taken by wildlife enthusiasts, and published online.
Scientists said they were “heartbroken” to see the extent to which the animals were living in our rubbish.
They said two-thirds of hermit crabs species were pictured in “artificial shells” – items that humans discarded.
The discovery is published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.
The study used social media and photo-sharing websites, as one of the researchers Marta Szulkin, an urban ecologist from the University of Warsaw, explained: “We started to notice something completely out of the ordinary.
“Instead of being adorned with a beautiful snail shell, which is what we’re used to seeing – they would had a red plastic bottle cap on their back or piece of light bulb.”
She and her University of Warsaw colleagues, Zuzanna Jagiello and Łukasz Dylewski, found a total of 386 individuals using artificial shells – mainly plastic caps.
“According to our calculations, ten out of the 16 species of land hermit crabs in the world use this type of shelter and it’s been observed in all tropical regions of the Earth,” Prof Szulkin explained.
It isn’t yet clear whether these materials are harmful – or perhaps even helpful – for the small, vulnerable crustaceans.
“When I first saw
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