Ghost crab on Cocoa Beach, Florida
Ghost crabs (Ocypode quadrata) get their name because they look like apparitions scurrying across the sand. When they stop moving, they become invisible, and you often cannot see them again until they start moving again. Problem is, they move so fast, it’s hard to confirm that you are not imagining that you saw something. They are like ghosts.
Once your eye is trained in their ways of visual deception they are much easier to spot. On the Gulf coast I am used to seeing them come out at dusk. However on the Atlantic coast I tend to see a lot more of them running around during daylight hours, although they are mainly active from dusk til dawn.
Ghost crabs live in burrows in the sand, above the high tide line. Below is a ghost crab burrow I photographed on New Smyrna Beach. As you can see from all the crab footprints, this crab has been very busy. Also, notice how white the sand is. New Smyrna Beach is one of the few white-sand beaches on Florida’s Atlantic coast.
Ghost crab burrow on New Smyrna Beach, Florida
Blair and Dawn Witherington, in their excellent book Florida’s Living Beaches, explain that male ghost crabs dig their burrows closer to the water than females do, and that ghost grab burrows can be up to 4 feet deep.
Ghost crabs play an important role in keeping the beach clean, and if you see lots of ghost crab burrows, it is a sign that you are on a healthy beach. Beach renourishment projects temporarily disrupt the populations of ghost crabs.
