There are many animals that have strong bites but a new research has found that the coconut crab has the strongest pinch in the world. The pinch is so strong that it is actually stronger than some of the bites from other animals. The study, published a few days ago by the journal PLOS One, was done with a team of experts, who captured close to 30 coconut crabs to see how strong their pinch was.
Shin-ichiro Oka and his team wrote in the journal article that obtaining data for analysis was challenging as the large claws of the coconut crab pinched them on multiple occasions. Oka and his team were pinched a number of times but they captured a total of 29 coconut crabs to find out their size and how strong their pinch was.
The coconut crab is actually the largest land crab in the world. They are gigantic animals and they can weight almost nine pounds. The coconut crab lives on islands in the Indian and Pacific ocean. The coconut crab population is reportedly large in the islands where it lives. The highest population of coconut crab is said to be on Caroline Island. One of the closest relatives to this gigantic crab is the tiny hermit crab. Juvenile coconut crabs use empty shells for protection but the adults develop a tough exoskeleton.
The coconut crab is a solitary and usually nocturnal animals, especially in areas that humans visit or live. Coconut crabs have the ability to climb trees and got their name for climbing coconut trees to eat coconuts. Oka and his team used a steel sensor to see how strong the 29 coconut crabs were. The pinch force of these 29 coconut crabs went from 29.4 newtons to 1,765.2 newtons. The pinch is stronger than bites from most animals, except for crocodiles, who have the strongest bite ever measured. In 2012, National Geographic reported that saltwater crocodiles had the strongest bites, with 16,460 newtons of bite force.
The research found that the size of the coconut crab made their pinch stronger. The largest coconut crabs can weight almost nine pounds and the team calculated that one with this weigh could have a maximum pinch force of 3,300. Oka and his team were pinched a few times and found out how strong the coconut crab really was during the research but they have now confirmed that this crustacean has the strong pinch in the world.
