Growth of the coconut crab Birgus latro in Vanuatu

Fletcher, W. J.; Brown, Ian W.; Fielder, D.R.

doi:10.1016/0022-0981(90)90158-9

Cited by 40 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…In contrast, the growth rate may appear to be zero if no molting has occurred. Because the coconut crab is suggested to molt during the winter dry season in holes or crevices (Fletcher et al 1990) -this includes crab populations in the Sakishima archipelago (T. Sato unpubl. data) -we analyzed only those individuals that had grown and wintered for at least one winter season, from November to February, between the times of capture and recapture.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although coconut crabs have been traditionally eaten by local people, there have been few serious attempts to manage stocks in most regions and there are few reliable biological data on the species (Drew et al 2010). A mark-recapture study to determine the growth rate of B. latro (Fletcher et al 1990) had limited success, due to the difficulties of long-range marking and identification of individuals -difficulties also encountered in studies of other species of crustacean (see Drew et al 2010). Consequently, the study by Fletcher et al (1990) was limited to a single intermolt period, reducing the ability to accurately estimate growth rates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A mark-recapture study to determine the growth rate of B. latro (Fletcher et al 1990) had limited success, due to the difficulties of long-range marking and identification of individuals -difficulties also encountered in studies of other species of crustacean (see Drew et al 2010). Consequently, the study by Fletcher et al (1990) was limited to a single intermolt period, reducing the ability to accurately estimate growth rates. In addition, little was found out about the growth of B. latro females, due to a de ficiency of female growth data (Fletcher et al 1990).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consequently, the study by Fletcher et al (1990) was limited to a single intermolt period, reducing the ability to accurately estimate growth rates. In addition, little was found out about the growth of B. latro females, due to a de ficiency of female growth data (Fletcher et al 1990).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Growth of the coconut crab Birgus latro estimated from mark-recapture using passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags

Sato¹,

Yoseda²,

Abe³

et al. 2013

Aquat. Biol.

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Determination of the growth pattern of a harvested species is an important step toward a proper assessment and suitable management of the stock. Although coconut crab Birgus latro populations in most regions have been severely depleted, few reliable biological data are available. We assessed the growth of B. latro using a mark-recapture method based on the use of passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags on Hatoma Island, located southwest of Okinawa, Japan. Of 781 crabs tagged (337 males, 444 females; 14.89 to 58.03 mm thoracic length [ThL]), 17 males and 20 females were recaptured. The application of PIT tags provided field data for growth of individuals for up to 2326 d and confirmed that coconut crabs molt during the winter dry season on Hatoma Island. The curves relating ThL with age, estimated from data of 29 crabs that had spent one or multiple winter dry seasons at liberty, showed that the coconut crab is an extremely slow growing species, with males showing much higher mean asymptotic ThL (69.87 mm) than females (42.79 mm). The Brody growth coefficient (K) was 0.061 yr −1 for males and 0.091 yr −1 for females. This study is the first to provide growth estimates of wild coconut crabs based on markrecapture over multiple years. Potentially long-lived, slow growing species such as coconut crabs may be susceptible to overharvesting, and a cautious approach is recommended to the determination of resource management regimes for B. latro.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Growth of the coconut crab Birgus latro estimated from mark-recapture using passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags

Sato¹,

Yoseda²,

Abe³

et al. 2013

Aquat. Biol.

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“…Hartnoll, 1982 and1983;Fletcher et al, 1990). Up to ten individual size increments per crab were noted within the six month of laboratory study.…”

Section: Early Juvenile Behaviour and Growth In The Laboratorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Growth and mortality of the exploited mangrove crab Ucides cordatus (Ucididae) in N-Brazil

Diele

Koch

2010

Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology

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Reliable estimates of growth and mortality parameters are crucial for understanding how populations of exploited species may respond to shifts in fishing pressure. Results of previous studies on growth of the ecologically and economically important mangrove crab Ucides cordatus in Brazil differ strongly and age estimates for minimum legal capture size (60 mm carapace width) range between less than one and 6-10 years.These discrepancies are probably due to inherent problems of the applied methods, namely laboratory based observations and cohort-analyses. The present paper takes a new approach by measuring individual growth increments of U. cordatus in situ. Crabs were measured, tagged, released into 100 m² field enclosures and periodically recaptured. There was no indication of an enclosure effect and 209 growth increments were obtained from specimens measuring 20.5 to 89.5 mm in carapace width (CW). For improving the size coverage of the von Bertalanffy growth curve, first instar juveniles were reared in the laboratory up to an age of six months. Their average percent size increase (PI) was 22.57 ± 6.75% during biweekly measurements, resulting in a CW of 2 7.8 to 11.5 mm after six months. Average PI of the enclosure crabs ranged between 10.87 ± 1.17% (indiv. < 40 mm CW) and 1.43 ± 0.87% (indiv. > 80 mm CW) per moult and two large females had moulted without growing. Growth analysis revealed a larger asymptotic size in males than in females (89 mm versus 72 mm) while the growth parameter K of the von Bertalanffy growth function (VBGF) was lower in males (0.17 versus 0.25), resulting in similar growth performance of the two sexes (males: 1.16; females: 1.10). Age at legal minimum capture size estimated by the inversed VBGF was 6.13 years in males and 7.38 years in females, corroborating the mid to upper range of earlier growth estimates. Mortality parameters (Z, M and F) were calculated using length converted catch curves. Z in males was higher than in females (0.69 versus 0.49), as expected from the male-biased fishery. M, F and the exploitation rate E were estimated for three different scenarios taking into account the uncertainty of the age/size of functional maturity. Our study provides key information for the sustainable management of the U. cordatus fishery and confirms that the species is relatively slow growing and long lived (> 10 yrs), suggesting a high vulnerability to overfishing.

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Molting

Trott¹,

Atema²

2018

Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

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Growth of the coconut crab Birgus latro in Vanuatu

Cited by 40 publications

References 13 publications

Growth of the coconut crab Birgus latro estimated from mark-recapture using passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags

Growth of the coconut crab Birgus latro estimated from mark-recapture using passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags

Growth and mortality of the exploited mangrove crab Ucides cordatus (Ucididae) in N-Brazil

Molting

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