Migrating red crabs are seen on Christmas Island, Australia, in this still image from undated video obtained via social media. Parks Australia via REUTERS
Millions of red crabs crawled across Christmas Island on Tuesday, part of their annual migration journey to the ocean on the island off the coast of Western Australia.
鈥淭his year鈥檚 migration has just been absolutely epic,鈥� said Christmas Island National Park natural resource manager Brendan Tiernan.
鈥淭he roads have been a seething mass of red crabs. It鈥檚 caused traffic jams on this small island and people having to get out of their cars and rake them out the way.鈥�
Tiernan said the ecological phenomenon of crabs migrating to the sea to spawn occurs nowhere else in the world on such a scale.
Migrating red crab are seen on a road on Christmas Island, Australia, in this undated image obtained via social media. Parks Australia via REUTERS
鈥淪ometimes we call it red crab island; the island鈥檚 community acknowledge just how important red crabs are to our ecosystem and to our economy, to tourism,鈥� he said.
After mating, male crabs will journey back to the jungle as the females stay behind in burrows for about two weeks to lay eggs. Each female can produce up to 100,000 eggs, which she will deposit into the ocean.
鈥淪ome people were quite freaked out by the fact that they鈥檙e surrounded by millions of crawling arthropods, whereas other people are just immersed 鈥� basically do a little 鈥榬ed crab angel鈥�, they鈥檒l lie on ground and let themselves get covered in red crabs,鈥� Tiernan said.
The Christmas Island red crab is unique to the island and protected by Australian law.
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