Walk on the wild side: Crabs move sideways to confuse predators

Researchers in Japan tell us why crabs move sideways, rather than straight ahead like all other creatures and how 'sideways motion’ is to their benefit

Of the 50 species tested in the Nagasaki University study, 35 turned out to be sideways movers and 15 were forward movers. Picture: iSotck

For yourself sir shall grow old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward — Hamlet to Polonius

The ‘Cashen’, the wild estuary of the River Feale, reaches the mouth of the Shannon near Ballybunion. I used to fish for flounder there in my youth, but I caught mainly crabs. Released from the line, they would scamper back to the water, snapping their claws together aggressively. I feared their sharp pincers.