UPDATE: Sadly, the Post added a correction to its story clarifying that the crabs are hungry for plastic waste, not horny for it.
The Washington Post reports that a team of scientists from the University of Hull in England got voyeuristic with a buncha horny hermit crabs. In a study of 40 hermit crabs from off the coast of Yorkshire, they found that the little aquatic critters were exceptionally sexually excited by plastics found in the sea — specifically, because of the chemical additive found in plastics known as oleamide.
Oleamide elevates the respiration rate of hermit crabs, which indicates excitement, researchers said, adding that the product is already considered to be a sex pheromone for some insects. "Our study shows that oleamide attracts hermit crabs," PhD candidate Paula Schirrmacher said in a statement released Tuesday.
"Respiration rate increases significantly in response to low concentrations of oleamide, and hermit crabs show a behavioral attraction comparable to their response to a feeding stimulant," she said.
When I was a kid — maybe 10 years old? — I caught a hermit crab on Cape Cod and brought it home to keep as a pet. I took care of it for a few months, but then the little plastic aquarium cage got knocked over, and it escaped down a hole in the floorboards. Two years later, we heard a rustling in the cabinet where my mom kept all the tupperware — where, it turned out, the hermit crab had nested its way into a new plastic home.
Of course, now I'm wondering if we had actually interrupted some hanky-panky.
Hermit crabs 'sexually excited' by plastic pollution in ocean, researchers say [Jennifer Hassan / The Washington Post]
Image: Public Domain via Flickr
