Atlantic Mangrove Ghost Crab

Ucides cordatus is from the mangrove crab genus and are primarily found in mangrove forests. They are largely terrestrial, and they will create their homes at the bases of trees in the form of burrows. These burrows have been seen to be as deep as 1.6 meters down. Their burrows have been found to play an important role in balancing carbon dioxide in mangrove forests. The increase in sedimentary surface area allows for a greater area for oxidation to occur especially during the rain season.

Like many other crabs, U. cordatus will migrate during mating season, which occurs during the months of November to January. They will leave their burrows to reach the ocean coast. In doing so, they create the migration phenomenon known as "a andada", which is Portuguese for 'the walking'. At the coast, the crabs will mate then lay their eggs, after which they will return to their origin.

Ucides cordatus can play important roles in determining and empirically quantifying successful mangrove reserves. They are well known for being a sentinel species, and efforts to determine their biological changes have been common methods by which researchers have determined effectiveness of reserves. Environmental changes such as increase of heavy metals, fertilizer runoff, and other xenobiotics have been correlated back to U. cordatus and their biological status.

There are also legal restrictions to capturing U. cordatus. Due to their popularity, and decreasing population sizes, some states of Brazil have enacted restrictions of the size of crabs people are allowed to hunt. States like Paraiba have laws preventing the capture of females crabs smaller than 4.5 cm. However, according to many gatherers, these laws are not entirely enforced.