Students make 'pilgrimages' to tree lobster
Perched between tree branches in front of Scott Hall, two lobsters loom over students who walk by. Dozens make their pilgrimage to the crustaceans, bringing forth offerings and taking photos, as the destination has become the latest obsession among the Rutgers community.
The crustaceans, one being a makeshift lobster made out of pinecones and tape, named “Boris” and the other named “Yellow Band Bobby,” for the yellow rubber bands wrapped around its claws, memorialize “Tree Lobster,” the tree’s previous inhabitant.
Tree Lobster, a real shellfish, had occupied the perch for three weeks prior. An escapee of King Neptune Night, the lobster was originally placed on the tree as a joke, though nobody anticipated it would become as popular as it is now.
“It’s gotten like a cult and religious following,” said Jericho Bautista, a School of Arts and Sciences senior. Bautista said he heard of the lobster during practice for a comedy sketch routine, when his friends told him they put a lobster in a tree.
He credited Tree Lobster’s popularity to its peculiarity.
“It’s really cool that someone put a lobster in a very obvious and reachable spot and no one thought of taking it away for a good three weeks,” he said.
As the days passed and the dark red complexion of Tree Lobster’s exoskeleton faded from continuous exposure to sun, wind and rain, it became an online obsession. On social media, Tree Lobster posts garnered hundreds of likes.
Some requested that others bow down before it, while someone donned it “our new religion.”
“I should make my pilgrimage soon, just to see it firsthand,” one Reddit user, DreadFuryDK, wrote.
Others, though, did not see Tree Lobster as amusing. While maggots wriggled from its head, some criticized the crustacean of College Avenue as gross and a waste of food.
“Someone should remove the lobster from the tree before it gets infested with maggots, rodents, roaches, scorpions, etc.,” one user, thismeansmoreeeee wrote. “It’s really not funny to have food go wasted like that.”
On Oct. 18, though, Tree Lobster vanished. One Reddit user claimed responsibility for the lobster’s disappearance, although it could not be verified if the University took it down.
The Rutgers community has memorialized Tree Lobster since. Some hung pictures of it on their walls, while someone made a Tinder account for the crustacean. As people make their pilgrimage to Tree Lobster, though, it has helped build camaraderie among the community.
“I’m sure other people meeting at the tree have met each other and talked about it,” said Autumn Rauscher, a School of Arts Sciences sophomore who created the interim lobster, Boris. “Just because of a lobster in a tree.”
