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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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新喀里多尼亚是离澳大利亚和新西兰最近的南太平洋岛屿。该岛是法国领地且官方语言是法语,尽管如此,其文化却丰富多彩,揉合了美拉尼西亚、欧洲、波利尼西亚、越南、中国、印尼等国的风情。这里有一个多山的大岛,称为大地岛 (Grande Terre),和6个较小的岛屿——洛亚蒂三岛 (Loyalty Islands)、贝莱普群岛 (Belep) 和松树岛 (Isle of Pines)。 整个群岛人口极为稀少,有大片的荒野。这里有数百公里长的徒步小径、随处可见的露营营地、超过42个公园和保护区、清澈透明的河流和莹莹闪光的瀑布。约三分之一的人口居住在首府努美阿。镍的开采是该国最主要的工业,也是维持其高标准生活的主要经济来源。大地岛四周环绕着世界第二大珊瑚礁,此珊瑚礁形成的泻湖是世界上最大的,也是受保护的泻湖。该泻湖于2008年被列为世界遗产,面积达24000平方公里,是品种丰富的鱼类和无脊椎动物栖息之地。 对于刚上岛的游客而言,最引人注目的是这里鲜艳夺目的色彩。努美阿以其完备的酒店、度假酒店、餐馆设施和丰富多彩的活动欢迎游客的到来。