These are some pictures I took on Florence Bay, a desert beach on Magnetic Island, 8 kilometres offshore from the city of Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
Have you ever seen anything like this?
The first time I came across this weird sand drawings was in New South Wales, in Australia, on one of the breathtaking beaches of Jervis Bay. At first sight, it looked like a massive shells composition or tiny little stones but then I touched them.
And… it was sand! Simple, soft, empty sand bubbles that all close to each other were creating amazing shapes, almost looking like a painting! Trust me, it is something that you would call art! Unintentional art!
How does this happen? Who is the artist? How does it make such perfect tiny little bubbles masterpieces?
Well, the expert sand sculptor we are mysteriously talking about is the Sand Bubbler Crab! They are small crabs, around 1 cm, widespread across the Indo- Pacific region, where they occur abundantly on sandy beaches in the tropics and sub-tropics.
Why do they act like this? This kind of crabs dig burrows in the sand, where they remain during high tide. When the tide is low again, they emerge on the surface looking for food. And it is while scouring the sand for this purpose that they leave beautiful unintentional art creations, leaving behind a remarkable reminder to not look for food in that area twice.
How stunning nature can be ❤