Anthropogenic Disturbance Threatens the Endangered Tufted Ghost Crab, Ocypode cursor

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ABSTRACT The tufted ghost crab, Ocypode cursor , native to the southeastern Mediterranean and subtropical Atlantic Ocean, is a key bioindicator species, providing valuable insights into the health and stability of sandy beach ecosystems through its population dynamics, behaviour and interactions with the environment. Sandy shores along the Mediterranean coast of Israel have been excluded from the national terrestrial monitoring and conservation programs; yet, occasional observations indicated that its once plentiful population in this region suffered a steep decline. We assessed the effects of recreational disturbance on abundance, spatio‐temporal distribution patterns and population size structure in four authorized exurban bathing beaches and four adjacent nature reserves in 2020–2021. We employed burrow count censusing and burrow opening diameter surveys as proxies for population abundance and population size structure. A total of 8555 burrows were surveyed. A well‐defined post‐weekend reduction in the number of burrows was apparent in both bathing beaches and nature reserves during high summer, though burrows in bathing beaches were generally fewer than in nature reserves. The survival of the local population of O. cursor , an endangered iconic species and a protected natural asset, depends on elimination, or at least scaling back, destructive activities (such as mechanical beach cleaning and off‐road vehicular traffic) along open sandy beaches, as well as reducing public access to the 10 sandy‐shore nature reserves along the Israeli Mediterranean, so as to provide spillover and recruitment subsidies to adjacent beaches, enhancing the long‐term sustainability of their biota.

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