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The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and the Odisha Forest Department have joined hands to tag horseshoe crabs along the State’s coast to understand the population and habitat utilisation for its conservation and management.
This follows reports of a dwindling population of horseshoe crabs along the Odisha coast.
In the first two days, scientists affixed tag, the first such effort in the country, on 70 horseshoe crabs.
Horseshoe crab
It is a marine chelicerate arthropod living in shallow coastal waters on soft sandy or muddy bottom
Spawns (release or deposit eggs) mostly on intertidal beaches at summer spring high tides.
Their hard exoskeleton resembles a horseshoe, hence the name.
It is regarded as a marine ‘living fossil’
There are four extant horseshoe crab species:
The American horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) along the eastern coast of the USA and in the Gulf of Mexico.
The tri-spine horseshoe crab (Tachypleus tridentatus)
The coastal horseshoe crab (Tachypleus gigas)
The mangrove horseshoe crab (Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda)
India is home to two species of horseshoe crabs — Tachypleus gigas and Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda
Both the species are found along the northeastern coast of India, especially along the Odisha and West Bengal coast.
Odisha is their largest habitat in India.
Major threats : Destructive fishing practices, illegal smuggling of the species
Horseshoe crabs are a Schedule 2 species under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972
IUCN Status:
American horseshoe crab: Vulnerable.
Tri-spine horseshoe crab: Endangered.
The two other species are not listed yet.
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