The undersea world is a brutal place, where survival is the only name of the game. As humans, we have a more convenient way of feeding than animals do, and the acquisition of our meals couldn’t be easier. Nearly all marine creatures must toggle between predator and prey, always on the lookout for either one. In the world of snails and other shelled creatures, there can be more at stake than just a meal. Their shells are valuable to a variety of creatures on the seafloor, particularly hermit crabs who eye a soon-to-be-vacated shell with intense envy, calculating the moment when they can swoop in. Because hermit crabs are notorious for lining up in a row, largest to smallest in order to snap up the shell that’s most recently been abandoned, there typically isn’t much jostling. But hermit crabs have been known to tussle over a shell, ousting one another until one gives up. Check out this footage of an undersea shell game in progress:
Image via kthypryn
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