Did you see that video of a knife-wielding crab that went viral recently? Sadly, it’s a hoax. The Washington Post spoke with an expert, and the whole thing was definitely staged. The crab didn’t pick up the knife itself. In reality, the blade was almost certainly jammed into the crab’s claw, and the crab can’t let go.
Jack Cover of the National Aquarium in Baltimore told the Washington Post that the crab is clearly distressed. “It’s a hoax,” he said, to put it bluntly.
“Purely from a biologist’s standpoint, I’m surprised the video is getting the attention it’s getting. To me, it’s sort of showing a little bit about our tendency to be very separate from nature,” Cover told the Washington Post. “A crab is not known for its large brain and it’s already got a pretty formidable weapon—that claw.”
So we don’t have to worry about knife-wielding crabs just yet, unless of course you jam a knife in a crab’s claw. But what about box-wielding robots?
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