S3E3: Manifold Crabs

Amanda Bunten-Walberg tells us about the incredible diversity of crabs as well as some of their social and physiological characteristics. She focuses on the Green Crab, a species whose adaptability has often also meant they are labelled as invasive. This content was originally aired in Season 5 of The Animal Turn Podcast.

 Featured: 

• Feral and Invasive Species with Lauren van Patter on The Animal Turn.
• Crabby Cynthia Chris.
• Crabs: A Global Natural History by Peter Davie.

Credits:

• Claudia Hirtenfelder, producer and host 
• Amanda Bunten-Walberg, co-host
• Christiaan Mentz, sound editor and producer 
• Rebecca Shen, content producer and designer (logo and episode artwork)
• Gordon Clarke, bed music composer
• Learn more about the team here. 

Support the podcast via: 

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/TheAnimalTurn 
• Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theanimalturn 
• Buzzsprout: https://theanimalturn.buzzsprout.com/ 

Sponsor:

Thank you to the sponsors of the fifth season of The Animal Turn podcast, “Animals and Biosecurity,” where this animal highlight was originally aired 31 October 2022. They are: 

A.P.P.L.E
Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.

Biosecurities Research Collective
The Biosecurities and Urban Governance Research brings together scholars interested in biosecurity.

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The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:20 Green Crabs
• 2:20 The Diversity of Crabs
• 11:38 Credits

Transcript

00:00 - Introduction 

• Welcome to Season 3 of The Animal Highlight, extracted from Season 5 of The Animal Turn Podcast (focused on Animals and Biosecurity). 
• We are focused on the animals that are caught up in biosecurity dramas. 
• My co-host this season is Amanda Bunten-Walberg who at the time of the recording was a PhD candidate at Queen’s University interested in questions related more-than-human ethics especially in contagion contexts, using bats and COVID19 as her focus.  
• Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law, and Ethics (A.P.P.L.E) and the Biosecurities and Urban Governance Research Collective sponsored the season of The Animal Turn where this content was extracted from. 
• This season had several technical and sound issues.
• This episode considers bats, more specifically flying foxes

01:20 – Green Crabs

• The Green Crab is listed as one of the worst most invasive species in the world.
• Nature Conservancy Canada refers to thee green crab as “an aggressively invasive alien species”
• Such condemning language. 

02:20 - Crabs

• Incredible creatures with exoskeletons and segmented bodies.
• They move in a memorable sideways scuttle. 
• Sandy beach ghost crabs c run sideways at four meters per second. 
• Crabs grow through molting and absorb their exoskeletons calcium until it cracks. 
• Crabs can feel pain, biologists are gathering evidence that crabs can and do feel pain. 
• There are more than 7000 crab species and they are found in an array of environments. Some live in the depths of ocean floors, others on thermal vents, or in small pools of water.
• Astounding environmental difference. 
• Japanese Spider Crabs can live for a century and are the largest crab. 
• Decorative crabs use materials in their environment, maintaining gardens on their shells. 
• Christmas Island red crabs shut down roadways when they move to breed and spawn. It is a spectacle. 
• Green Crabs have a high tolerance for dealing with change and it is these characterise that help them be successful in their non-native environments. 
• They catch rides in the ballast of ships and are found around the world.

11:38 - Credits

• Thank you to Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law, and Ethics (A.P.P.L.E) for sponsoring the podcast and the Biosecurities and Urban Governance Research Collective for sponsoring the season of The Animal Turn where this content was extracted from. 
• A big thank you to Amanda Bunten-Walberg for co-hosting this season of The Animal Highlight
• This episode was produced by Claudia Hirtenfelder and edited by Christiaan Mentz. 
• The logo and episode artwork were created by Rebecca Shen. 
• Show notes compiled by Claudia Hirtenfelder
• Please rate and review wherever you listen.