With so many thinking about relocating, it seems that humans are not alone.
Some hermit crabs prefer plastic bottle caps and other trash rather than the discarded shells of other crustations.
The following written content from Anika Burgess
Humorous as it may be, human activity has affected many aspects of marine life.
Take, for example, the coenobita purpureus, or blueberry hermit crabs, of Okinawa. Like other hermit crabs, they also need shells to cover and protect their soft abdomens. But these particular hermit crabs have had to adapt to their changing environment—instead of shells, their homes are pieces of trash.
At first, photographer Shawn Miller was amazed to see how the hermit crabs were adapting. That was in 2010. “Over the years”, he writes on email, “I continued to find more crabs with trash homes. I noticed more trash piling up on our shorelines searching for hermit crabs and realized it was a serious problem.”
For hermit crabs, protecting their abdomen is an essential part of survival. They also need to be able to retreat completely into their shell—or bottle cap.
In Miller’s pictures, he felt it was important to capture the hermit crabs in their natural environment—which included the beach trash that they repurpose for homes. “I wanted to bring awareness to our pollution problems on our shorelines.” Read more from https://www.AtlasObscura
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