Photo by javier_aznar_photography | After several days of lying in the mud for hours as I tried to photograph shore birds, I was drawn to a group of fiddler crabs. I observed them communicating with a sequence of waves and gestures. Fiddler crabs are known for their sexually dimorphic claws—the females have two small claws, whereas the male (seen here) has a small and a large one, used to both attract females and threaten other males. The crabs play a key role in the preservation of wetland habitat, aerating the substrate as they burrow in. The photo was taken in Ecuador, on the shore of a mangrove, with the sun reflecting in the water at sunset. Follow javier_aznar_photography to see more amazing creatures. #red #crab #fiddler #fiddlercrab #ecuador