Mangrove Mayhem

The water swirled and foamed as the tide withdrew, slowly exposing the Mangrove swamps mud and flotsam.  Clouds skittered across a full moon and swamp dwellers emerged as the receding water exposed their shelters.  A creature struggled in the muck as the water ebbed and flowed.  The Mangrove Crab, its deep green carapace and orange tipped claws, glowing in the moonlight worked itself free and then sidled through the mud toward the protection that the tangle of the now fully exposed mangrove roots provided.

Other creatures, not of the sea, but familiar with its bounty made their way to the tidal flats.  They came out of the towering screw pines, the Nipa palms and the ubiquitous mangrove trees.  They came through the ferns and grasses that grew along the shore, always keeping a hungry eye out for prey.  Some flew, some scurried, some crawled, and some slithered; all made their eager way to the flats in search of the same thing.

The beautiful Mangrove Crab, ever wary of predators, sidled through the muck as fast as it could, but its large flat body and spindly legs made it difficult to move.  The crab waved its powerful claws in the air to intimidate predators as it dragged itself toward the mangrove roots, but then something heavy landed on its back and pressed it down into the soft ooze.  The crab struggled to bring its claws into position to ward off its attacker, but the attacker’s weight pressed the crab’s body deeper into the muck.  Its slender legs were useless in the mud.  It couldn't move.  The crab’s only weapon, its two pincers, snapped frantically feeling for something to grab, to crush, to fend off its attacker.
The assailant seized the crab’s carapace in its mouth and bit into it.  Strong jaws cracked the tough shell, and small needle like teeth pierced the soft innards and injected a paralyzing poison.  The crabs struggles weakened, and then ceased.    It lay buried in the mud, alive, but helpless. 

The attacker, its long gray body glistening, took the paralyzed crab’s claw into its mouth, shook his head and rolled like an alligator until it had twisted the claw out of the crab’s body.  The three foot long reptile disjointed its jaws, swallowed the claw, and then dismembered the remaining extremities in the same manner until only the dark green carapace and two tiny black eyes remained. 

The crab’s body was too large for the White Bellied Mangrove Snake to swallow so it slithered back to its hideaway in the mangrove roots leaving the crab’s remains for the scavengers of the mangrove mud flats.