Thomas Peschak's Image

One evening Thomas noticed this crab outside a derelict building. With the crab just outside the frame of view, Thomas used his torch to project its silhouette onto the wall. A remote-controlled flash illuminated the surroundings and biologist Otto Whitehead. ‘Another crab scuttled into view,’ says Thomas ‘and it completed the shot’.

The Seychelles’ remote Aldabra Atoll is one of the last bastions of the coconut crab in the western Indian Ocean. This species gets its name from its penchant for coconuts, which it cracks open with its powerful claws. Spanning up to a metre across and weighing up to three kilogrammes, it is the world’s largest terrestrial arthropod.