People are welcome to visit Hsinchu City’s Siangshan Wetlands (香山濕地), Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) said on Friday.
The wetlands, at 1,768 hectares, are the largest tidal wetland in northern Taiwan and home to the Uca arcuate, or bowed fiddler crab, Lin said.
The city government has restored about 300 hectares of mangroves over the past few years, providing a suitable environment in which the crabs can live and breed, Lin said.
Photo: Tsai Chang-sheng, Taipei Times
There has been a dramatic increase in the wetlands’ crab population, from 10,000 in 2011 to 120,000 in 2015 and 230,000 last year, Lin said.
“This shows that the government’s ecology project has successfully restored the crabs’ habitat,” Lin said.
Last year, the city government constructed a pathway from which to view the crabs, Lin said, adding that the best time to view them is after the tide goes out.
Some young crabs are a spectacular robin’s egg blue, although that is a rare sight, as most are red, brown or gray, Lin said.
The claws of the adult crabs are often streaked with red, Lin added.
The bowed fiddler crab lives longer than most crabs and typically mates in the summer, Lin said, adding that another kind of crab often seen in the wetlands — the Macrophthalmus banzai — frequently escapes notice by camouflaging itself with mud.
Some say that the crab received its name from how the male crabs wave their pincers, which looks as if they are proclaiming banzai, or “long live the emperor.”
Visitors to the wetlands should also visit the Nangang Bird Viewing Park, take a walk along the pier in Haishan Borough (海山) and take in the sunset, Lin added.
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