Scores of red crabs have begun their annual coastal dash on Christmas Island, as the first substantial rain of the wet season triggers millions of adult red crabs to leave their forest homes in the interior of the island and march towards the coast to mate and spawn.
Located 1,500 kilometers from the Australian mainland and 350 kilometers south of the Indonesian island of Java, Christmas Island National Park staff have spent months preparing for the mass migration. They have set up kilometers of temporary roadside barriers to channel the migrating crabs to the safety of underpasses and overpasses, as well as diverting traffic away from the crabs as they move towards the coast.
The red crab is the island’s keystone species, and the entire community pitches in to facilitate the “fascinating phenomenon.” Park manager Derek Ball said the red crab’s biggest threat, the invasive yellow crazy ant, has been targeted in an effort to reduce their numbers and protect the red crab population, which has more than doubled in the past five years, from 50 million to more than 100 million. Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek called the red crab migration an “iconic natural phenomenon” and a “fantastic success story of how we can work together to protect our precious native species.”