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Ghost crabs, Ocypode ceratophthalmus, on the white sandy beach at Ilot Kouare nature reserve, are really difficult to capture - photographically speaking. They dig deep burrows in the soft sand and hide in there if they see anthing moving along - or over - the beach. Pretty jumpy critters, actually. They also adjust the color of their carapaces to match the color of the sand. I'm not sure how they do that.
Some of them are not too bright. If they were there would be a lot more of them. Herons, sea gulls, and sea eagles like crab-snacks so the smarter ones tend to be really impossible to see wandering around on the sand during the day at low tide. Impossible because the smart ones are snoozing down in their burrows. Some, maybe overcome with munchies themselves, maybe charged up with the hormones of a teenager, dash out into the open now and then.
I saw two of them darting in and out of their burrows on the northern tip of Kouare and so I set up my remote control Hero3 on it's pole just next to them, took a sphere image of the glorious beach, and then left the camera aimed at where I saw the crabs and wandered off, making big clumping foot-in-sand vibrations as I went. Sure enough, when I was about 20 meters away I saw them come out again and took their photo as one dashed around and the other glared at it from the edge of its burrow.
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to try to find the two crabs in the image ;-).
People are not supposed to bug the critters on Kouare nature reserve. Dogs are not allowed on the island at all. But holiday happy yacht crews from Noumea show up once and awhile, dogs and all, and swarm over the beach - running here and there like demented fools. It is, I suppose, the price wilderness must pay to gain some measure of protection from humans.
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Une Nation du Pacifique Sud, la plus proche de l'Australie et de la Nouvelle Zélande. Une chaîne de hautes montagnes, d'impressionnantes cascades et de nombreuses rivières avec une flore et une faune variée et souvent unique au monde - C'est le paradis de la randonnée pédestre ou équestre ainsi que de l'excursion en véhicule tout-terrain.Le plus grand lagon du monde, peuplé d'une faune tropicale endémique particulièrement riche, avec des récifs et des populations de poissons rares et protégées. Des centaines d'épaves sous-marines, des îlots, de nombreuses plages de sable blanc. La population calédonienne est issue d'un large brassage culturel : Mélanésiens, Européens, Polynésiens, Vietnamiens, Chinois, Japonais, et la langue et culture française. La Nouvelle-Calédonie est dotée de très bonnes infrastructures médicales et sociales. Une infrastructure touristique qui offre un large éventail de types d'hébergement allant de l'hôtel 5 étoiles au camping aménagé en passant par l'accueil en milieu tribal, les chambres d'hôtes, les refuges et l'auberge de jeunesse.
