Nature & Environment

50 million crabs cause chaos on Australia's Christmas Island

By T.K. Randall
November 20, 2021 ·  5 comments

The crabs take over the whole island once a year. Image Credit: YouTube / BBC Earth The streets, paths, forest floors and beaches of this idyllic island have been running red this week thanks to the annual migration of millions upon millions of red crabs which travel from the island's jungles to its beaches - a journey of several miles - where they will look for a mate.

Afterwards, the males will return to the jungle while the females remain on the beaches in burrows to lay their eggs. They will then emerge and release the eggs into the sea.

This particular species of crab, known as the Christmas Island red crab, is found nowhere else on Earth, making their annual migration a particularly unique spectacle.

The island's human inhabitants are well used to it by now and have even built infrastructure to help the crabs on their journey, such as special crossings to help them traverse busy roads.In some areas, the huge wave of crabs is so extreme that residents are unable to leave their homes at all for a short time - a period that some have come to refer to as 'crab lockdown'.

Others simply do their best to stay out of the crabs' way and not to accidentally stand on any of them.

Local radio stations will often broadcast bulletins informing residents about the current status of the migration and forecasting when it will start and end.

Fortunately the crabs themselves are not interested in humans and do not represent a threat.


Source: Yahoo! News | Comments (5)

Tags: Crabs