AN ENCOUNTER

My encounter with the male Fiddler Crab was a painful experience. This crab (Uca vocans) a small aquatic crustacean found in a mangrove area had a big pink coloured pincer or claw. Hordes of tiny fiddler crabs and red crabs ruffled the coast in the morning and evening to devour the food cast ashore; nature’s wonderful hand to clean up the delta shores. At the least meddling, they would run fast and hide in one of the numerous burrows on the banks of the ‘Kayal’. When poked with an ‘Erkile’, tiny rib of palm leaf, it moved on to the next burrow. One day I caught one of them and held it firmly in my right hand. I was really thrilled; I took it home to show it to ‘Ammachi’. When I tried to open my hand slowly, I found that the front claw of that single pincer small crab had caught hold of my thumb. It was pressing it so hard that I could not release it in spite of wringing my hand. Its clasp was very firm but my efforts succeeded finally. But the pain continued unabated. I realized that only its body fell off but the pincer leg was locked onto my finger. The pain was so excruciating that I started to scream. “Ammachiyo….”. Ammachi took out a scissor and cut off one half of its pincer. Oh! What a relief!  The bite left a deep wound on my thumb. I displayed it around especially to the younger ones in the family so that they may not suffer a similar casualty.

I was amazed to learn that the Mother Nature has provided tiny animal’s device like pincer as in crabs; sting as in varied bees and scorpion; jaws as in ants, mosquitoes, bed bugs, lices, ticks and biting flies; and the power to give electric shock as in black ants and ray-fish; to protect themselves from their enemies and other predators.

Excerpts from

MEMOIRS

An autobiography

by

Joseph J. Thayamkeril

Lawyer, Kochi, Kerala, India.

josephjthayamkeril.blogspot.com

josephjthayamkeril@gmail.com