Everywhere we go we see these patterns on the beaches:

 

 

 

And usually the entire beach is covered, a simply vast area:

 

 

Each of these spheres is a little ball of sand about 2-3mm in diameter. It’s obviously the work of crabs – one is living in the hole in the picture above, but we’ve never seen them. So I’ve tracked them down. In Queensland it the Sand Bubbler Crab Scopimera inflata, and a really interesting chap it is too.

Uniquely these bubbler crabs have a patch on their legs which enables them to absorb oxygen direct from the air, and that lets them blow these amazing sand bubbles. We’ve not seen them, but David Attenborough has, and I heartily recommend looking at the amusing video clip below (this is not a hyperlink so you’ll have to copy and paste it) – it’s well worth it!