Christmas Island red crab migration
Every year the roads through Christmas Islands become a “living red carpet” as millions of red crabs emerge from the forest and make their way to the ocean to breed, and one business owner has designed “crab-safe” car attachments to allow his staff to drive during the migration period.
The traffic from the crabs is so dense it closes the island’s roads and has become a tourism drawcard.
Owner of one of the island’s accommodation providers, Chris Bray, said the sight was spectacular but it caused chaos for traffic.
“A lot of the roads just get so densely covered in this living red carpet, so national parks close them up for a couple of months to let the crabs do their thing,” he said.
Between 40 and 50 million red crabs live on Christmas Island and Mr Bray says the crabs know exactly where to go.
Red crabs live on Christmas Island and millions migrate to the ocean each year to breed.(Supplied: Chris Bray)
“They all have to congregate on the coast at the right particular phase of the moon and the right tide to be able to cast their eggs into the seas,” he said.
“It’s an incredibly well-synchronised event.”
Mr Bray said if it rained too close to the spawning date and there was not enough time to migrate, the crabs held off migrating until the next month.
Crabmobile ‘beats walking in rain’
Mr Bray installed ‘crab sweepers’ to his vehicle, which slowly bump the crustaceans out of the way, to help get through the mass movement of the red crabs each year.
Specially designed sweepers on each wheel of Mr Bray’s vehicle brush migrating crabs out of harm’s way.(Supplied: Chris Bray )
“Everyone was like, ‘How are you going to access the lodge when the crabs are migrating?’ So, I built a crab-safe vehicle attachment,” he said.
“You have to drive quite slowly, about the same speed as walking really.
“But it sure beats walking if it’s raining or if you’re lodge staff and you need to get supplies in and out.”
Along with red crab traffic, visitors must be wary of some other crabby neighbours.
“It’s the robber or coconut crabs that sometimes come along and steal the guests’ shoes,” Mr Bray said.
“[If] anything that smells or has a smell on it, they’ll come along and drag it into the jungle somewhere.
“Guests will wake up and be like, ‘Where are my shoes gone?’. Sometimes you find them, sometimes you don’t.”