Devil reef crab

Doole tooke

Tooke si ñaamaama

Ina bone tan si huunde ñaamii nde.

Hol ko tooke mum (memde walla ñaamde) waɗata?

This animal is poisonous, not venomous, so it harms people when eaten rather than through a bite or sting. Its shell and meat contain tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin, which are neurotoxins (poisons that attack the nerves). They are absorbed through the gut and interfere with the sodium channels in nerve cells.1

Hol no nde woni bone e yimɓe?

Poisoning from this crab can be fatal. In the Philippines, 50% of intoxication cases are reported to be fatal, and 12 people died on Negros Island in the 1980s. In Timor-Leste, one man died within hours of eating it, and in February 2021 two children in Cagayan died after eating crab their father had caught.1