Hermit Crabs as Emergent Icons of Global Waste Epidemic and Their Unreal Estate Housing Struggles

• Published in: Society & Animals
• Main Author: Cortés Zulueta, Concepción
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Brill 2019
• Subjects: Sociology and Political Science; General Veterinary; polar bear
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685306-00001839; https://brill.com/view/journals/soan/27/7/article-p697_4.xml

Abstract A hermit crab housed in a broken glass bottle or inside a plastic cap is becoming like a polar bear stranded on a tiny, melting iceberg: those pictures are emergent icons of the plight faced by oceans and creatures, caused by human waste excesses and wrongdoings. These inventive crustaceans fulfill a warning role akin to charismatic megafauna, and induce empathy with varied sources, dominated by human projections like the housing crisis metaphor. Crabs emerge like a cluster where many opposed notions collapse, while they stage the frictions of a complex, fractured balance. They are wild animals, and controversial companion animals, and when they live inside human trash, they show resilience that questions the natural-artificial divide. Simultaneously, they remind humans of strains imposed upon them, the oceans, and the planet, becoming tokens of the unbalances with which humans have to deal in their often-misguided attempts to fix the things they are rupturing.