{"id":11966,"date":"2025-10-10T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/wildwire\/?p=11966"},"modified":"2025-07-18T09:37:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T13:37:40","slug":"the-spikey-starfish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/omg_animals\/the-spikey-starfish\/","title":{"rendered":"The Spikey Crown-of-Thorns Starfish"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever seen a starfish up close, you might think they are pretty harmless. How could something that moves so slowly be a danger to humans? But before you go thinking that all starfish are friendly, you should meet the crown-of-thorns. This starfish\u2019s sharp, venomous spikes are enough to make anyone a little scared.
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\nAlong the coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific Ocean lives the second-largest starfish in the world. The crown-of-thorns starfish can grow over a meter across and can have between 7 to 23 arms. The venomous spikes that grow all over the crown-of-thorns\u2019 body can reach up to 5cm long, which sounds awfully painful for anyone who might accidentally step on one, ouch!<\/p>\n

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Crown-of-thorns starfish population has exploded and can be devastating to coral reefs. There are 6 present in this photo. Photo Credit: Aeysea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other than humans, these starfish can also be pretty destructive to coral. Crown-of-thorns starfish like to munch on coral polyps, the individual organisms that make up coral and coral reefs. Normally, these starfish live in balance with the coral reef, but human impact has dramatically reduced the crown-of-thorns\u2019 natural predators, causing the starfish\u2019s populations to explode. Since they eat the coral faster than it can grow, they can be very harmful to the entire coral reef ecosystem.<\/p>\n

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Bleached coral killed by crown-of-thorns starfish. Photo Credit: Derekkeats<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever seen a starfish up close, you might think they are pretty harmless. How could something that moves so slowly be a danger to humans?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,409,931],"tags":[249,92,118,223],"class_list":["post-11966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-omg_animals","category-omg-facts","category-all","tag-coral-reef","tag-ocean","tag-starfish","tag-venom"],"pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t