Pale, hairy yeti crab clinging to a smoking hydrothermal vent in the deep sea

Yeti Crab: Facts, Photos & Why It’s So Strange

Kiwa hirsuta

A crab with furry arms that farms its own food

It’s white, it’s blind and its arms are covered in silky blond fur. When scientists found it next to a volcanic vent on the Pacific sea floor in 2005, it was so different from anything known that it needed a brand-new family. They named it Kiwa hirsuta – and nicknamed it after the abominable snowman.

Yeti Crab vs. you

Your heightft / incm ft in5 ft 7 in

Highlights

Named after the abominable snowman
Highlights

It farms food on its arms
Highlights

Lives beside a deep-sea volcano

Size: ~6 in; About 6 in (15 cm)
Left in the wild: Unknown

Conservation status

Not evaluated

Superpowers

Venomous : Is it venomous? No
Glows : Does it glow? No
Regenerates limbs : Can it regenerate limbs? Probably – like other crabs, it can likely regrow lost limbs

Identity

Scientific name: Kiwa hirsuta
Class: Crustacean
First described: 2005, by Enrique Macpherson, William Jones and Michel Segonzac

Life & family

Diet: Bacteria it grows on its own arms
Gestation: None – the female carries eggs
Predators: Unknown

Where to find it

Habitat: Hot volcanic vents on the deep sea floor, about 7,200 ft (2,200 m) down
Lives in: The South Pacific, south of Easter Island
In the wild: No
In zoos: No

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Why is this animal unusual?

The “fur” is made of fine bristles, and they’re crawling with bacteria. The crab is a farmer: it grows these bacteria on its arms and then combs them off and eats them.

Why does it look like that?

A pale, ghostly body, long hairy claws and tiny leftover eyes that probably can’t see anything.

Strangest biological feature

The arm garden.

Why is it strange?

One of its cousins “dances” – it waves its claws slowly back and forth over cracks in the sea floor, to wash its bacteria in the chemical-rich water they feed on.

Interesting behavioral facts

It lives in a very narrow comfort zone: close enough to the scalding vent to get chemicals, far enough away not to be cooked.

Records held

Its genus is named after Kiwa, a guardian of the sea in Polynesian mythology. An Antarctic relative is nicknamed the “Hoff crab”, after David Hasselhoff’s hairy chest.