The Singapore Horse-shoe Crab

I am in Singpore now. As usual, in the morning I went for a walk on the beautiful beach here. When I was enjoying the stroll, an object attracted my attention. At first sight, I took it as some dead sea-animal. On closer examination, I found that there was a movement of one of its tiny legs. So I presumed that the animal had been flipped on the shore by a big and strong wave and had turned upside down.

On the Flip Side

I felt pity and decided to help. I prodded it a little with the help of the umbrella which I was carrying. I turned it and it came to its normal position and started crawling. :)))))

Crawling Back to Life

But it was crawling away from the sea. So with the tip of the umbrella, I pushed it a little and changed the direction of its movement. It started moving towards the sea. After a while, it stopped moving. I felt it had lost its energy because of lying on the dry sand and in the unfavourable surrounding for long. I decided to help it further. Gently, with the help of of the tip of the umbrella, I pushed it a little further. It started moving but again stopped after a while. So again I pushed it slightly. It moved a little and stopped. We made a joint effort. I and the animal repeated the process about 3 or 4 times. Finally it reached the tip of sea and then swiftly and gleefully swam into the water. :)))))))))

Reaching Home At Last!

I could observe it only for a little while but to my disappointment and to its utter delight, it disappeared into the sea.

I came back home and learnt that these animals are called horse-shoe crabs.

The incident provided a happy moment to me.