Abstract

Domestic dogs are reported foraging on molecrabs Emerita analoga on Curinanco beach, Valdivia, Chile. Preying on these crabs represents a potential health risk for the dogs, because E. analoga is the intermediate host of larvae of the acanthocephalan Profiticollis altmani, which uses shorebirds as definitive hosts, but also have been documented to parasitize marine and terrestrial mammals including humans. Finally, the dogs not only disrupt birds' foraging, but now also compete for the same resource.