A rare site passed by our house today – a hermit crab without a shell, looking very vulnerable and like a juicy morsel for the many predators here on Aride, like skinks, birds, not to mention other crabs. However we were able to rescue the situation from our small collection of newly acquired shells. Not that well blessed with large specimens, all we could offer was a medium sized turban shell – but within a flash the little shell less hermit made it its new home!! After a quick inspection the manoeuvre was done and hermit was safe inside. 
The hermit crabs were not something I had thought much about before coming over to Aride – but they are everywhere and are real characters - the island is home to a 3 types.
Purple, Orange and Pale hermits – the first 2 largely nocturnal and the Pale, active day and night - the beach becomes a live early evening as hermits off all sizes roam around. They do vary in their size, but the Purple can be at least 10 times the size of the ones we used to find back home as kids – about the size of a large grapefruit! Luckily as the name suggests, the Seychelles has a ready supply of homes all different sizes and types and Aride’s beach washes up a good assortment.
Although they are not tempted inside the house - which is quite an exception, everything else is – they do scavenge outside and will readily compete with all the other wildlife for any scraps and biodegradable material. It was quite amusing to watch a purple hermit wrestle with a coconut shell – we made our own coconut milk from fresh coconuts yesterday – the funny thing was the coconut shell turned poor hermit over – not the brightest of creatures, but great entertainment – beats television!!
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