Crabs of Cocos (Keeling) Islands

From left to right :
5c : Little Nipper (葛氏陸方蟹) ; 5c : Purple Crab (兇狠圓軸蟹)
45c : Smooth-banded Ghost Crab (平掌沙蟹)
45c : Horn-eyed Ghost Crab (角眼沙蟹)
Cocos (Keeling) Islands (2000)
21st December, 2009. Cocos Keeling Island

These four crabs are widely to be found in west Pacific area, however they are not normally appear on Cocos (Keeling) Islands, where are the islands located in the east of Indian Ocean. Little Nipper widely to be found in Indian Ocean and west tropical Pacific Ocean, it looks puprle and black. Purple Crab is a large crab, mostly lives in the islands of Samoa, French Polynesia to East Africa, also to be found in Taiwan and Hoinam. It is in purple-reddish colour or purple-greyish colour. Smooth-banded Ghost Crab and Horn-eyed Ghost Crab widely live in the coastlines of east Asia, from southern-Japan to islands of south Pacific, they also live in Red Sea and South Africa.

Beach Thick-knee

Beach Stone-curlew (澳洲石鴴)
Vanuatu (2009)
25th November, 2009. Port Vila

In 2009, there have 20 of stamp sets included in WWF series, and 8 series related to birds. However due to many situations and unexpected reasons, I only ordered stamps issued by Sao Tomé e Príncipe, Malawi, North Korea and Vanuatu ; and other four will be purchased in future. In here I would show third one issued by Vanuatu, an official first day cover by Vanuatu Post. The last one, an aerogramme issued by North Korea, to be shown on early April.

Beach Stone-curlew is a large sea bird to be found in coastlines of South-east Asia and southern Pacific countries. Mostly visible from the range of the Philippines, India, Myanmar, Malaya Peninsula, Indonesia to those islands in south Pacific include Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. The bird was easily to be found in above area but after the over development, the population decrease due to the damage of inhabited area. Now it listed as Threatened species in IUCN list.

Thanks Vanuatu Philatelic Bureau to send me this nice first day cover, in the meantime there have another first day cover received, which is a beautiful stamp set Frangipani (赤素馨花).