Hermit crabs all over the world, which scavenge shells as armour for their bodies, are turning increasingly to plastic waste instead.

Hermit crabs all over the world, which scavenge shells as armour for their bodies, are turning increasingly to plastic waste instead.

    • snooggums@kbin.social
      0·
      8 months ago

      A lot of metal containers have linings that are considered safe for humans while sealed. Those same linings are not necessarily safe for other species, and likely become unsafe when exposed to the elements.

    • MusicHeals@beehaw.org
      0·
      8 months ago

      I wonder at that use as well, given the following:

      Anthropogenic materials used as artificial shells by hermit crabs (n = 386). Plastic shells are the most widely used artificial shells (n = 326, 84.5 %), followed by metal (n = 22, 5.4 %), glass (n = 22, 5.4 %) and metal and glass (n = 18, 4.7 %)