Frechsbrötchen

Personality

Seems peaceful, but the pink beak is basically always mid-sentence. Frechsbrötchen walks slowly, because it's busy commentating — on itself, on passing pebbles, on anyone who happens to be listening. Beneath all the chatter lies a stubborn core: once it has decided on a direction, all six legs follow through without question.

Core traits

Where they live

• stepped basalt shelves filled with trapped seawater
• barnacle crusts and anemone clusters in pink and violet
• narrow channels where small crabs scuttle
• splash zones where spray keeps the stone always damp
• wedged pebbles that have been commentated on for years

What they eat

• soft-shelled hermit crabs caught mid-moult
• limpet feet prised from warm stone
• translucent pool shrimp
• salt-cured algae mats