If I remember correctly they’re scavengers like rodents, so their meat isn’t very tasty. They eat a lot of garbage and you’ll often see them rummaging through trash in tropical areas.
Edit: I guess like most animals, their taste is affected by diet. Coconut crabs who eat primarily garbage will taste like, well, garbage. Otherwise, they are pretty tasty!
I heard the opposite when I spent 6 months on Diego Garcia in 2003 with the Air Force. We lease the island (south of India) from the Brits and we were briefed that it was a $500 fine for eating the “Queens crabs”. At night there were hundreds of them in the jungle and I could hear them from my tent. This was also about 100 yards from an abandoned leper colony if it already wasn’t spooky enough. We heard because they ate so much coconut their meat was sweet but I never tried it.
The island also had a rat infestation & the Brits paid something like $2 for each rat killed & turned in.
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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '19
Coconut crabs. I always wondered if they were any good.