Habitat

Macpherson, et al. 2005. Zoosystema 27(4), p. 712.
Yeti crab specimens (Kiwa. n. sp.) collected off the coast of Costa Rica.
(Courtesy Scripps Institution of Oceanography © 2009)

Until 2006, Annie's Anthill marked marked the northernmost boundary of family Kiwaidae's known habitat.  However, approximately a year after the initial discovery near Easter Island, another expedition discovered a prolific population of Yeti crabs off the coast of Costa Rica, a finding confirmed in February 2009 to be a novel Kiwa species.  Because the species has yet to be formally described, it is currently referred to only as Kiwa n. sp. (Thurber 2009).  Remarkably, these Yeti crabs were found not near geothermal vents, but rather around cold methane seeps (Spears 2009; Levin 2009), an environment equally as inhospitable to normal forms of life but likewise richly conducive to the development of chemotrophic extremophile species.

Macpherson, et al. 2005. Zoosystema 27(4), p. 712.
K. hirsuta specimens photographed in situ by the submersible Alvin at two different hydrothermal sites. Image A depicts two bright yellow Yeti crabs prowling Annie's Anthill amidst individuals of another crab species atop a dark brown bed of vent mussels, on which K. hirsuta is known to feed. Image B shows a frontal view of a Yeti crab found on pillow lava near Pâle Étoile. (Courtesy Zoosystema © 2005)

Speaking of feeding, click here to learn how Yeti crabs obtain their nutritional requirements.

More habitat

Nutrition - Diet