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DIY 3D printer outfit Makerbot Industries has unveiled an initiative called Project Shellter which aims to harness the efforts of the community of 3D printer owners into designing and printing new homes for hermit crabs.
"Hermit crabs don’t make their own shells. They scavenge their homes. And now, hermit crabs are facing a housing shortage as the worldwide shell supply is decreasing," said Makerbot founder Bre Pettis.
Pettis claimed that the shortage meant that hermit crabs were being forced to move into other homes such as bottles and shotgun shells.
"As a community, we can reach out to this vulnerable species and offer our digital design skills and 3D printing capabilities and give hermit crabs another option: 3D printed shells," added Pettis.
Maketbot Industries produces a DIY assembled 3D printer which extrudes plastic into real shapes. The Project Shellter initiative aims to harness a network of 5,000 Makerbots although no one actually yet knows if a hermit crab will want to move into a 3D printed shell.
Maybe they just like shotgun shells.
