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Pistol Shrimp | Daily Animal Facts

Animal profile

Pistol Shrimp

Alpheus heterochaelis

MalacostracaShallow oyster reefs, seagrass, mud flats and rubble in warm coastal waters

Field profile

The bigclaw snapping shrimp is a small alpheid shrimp with one greatly enlarged snapping claw. Colonies live in dense aggregations on oyster reefs and other hard bottoms. Their collective snapping is one of the loudest and most persistent biological noises in coastal seas.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2025-04-03

Pistol Shrimp

Snapping shrimp once jammed naval sonar

A colony of snapping shrimp produces a continuous crackle loud enough to mask sonar returns. During the Second World War, submarines are reported to have sheltered near shrimp beds because the noise degraded the detection equipment hunting them.

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