What time of year are Christmas Island crabs?

When does the red crab migration occur? The migration starts with the first rainfall of the wet season. This is usually in October or November, but can sometimes be as late as December or January. Red crabs all over the island leave their homes at the same time and start marching towards the ocean to mate and spawn.



People Also Ask

Christmas Island Dry Season (May – Sep) The dry season brings with it lower humidity, beautiful picturesque sunsets, blue skies and of course less rain!

MORE DETAILS

Also known as the coconut crab, the robber crab is the world's biggest land crustacean.

MORE DETAILS

When the red crab is still in its larval stage, their main predators are fish and large filter-feeders like whale sharks. However, on the land, Christmas Island red crabs have no natural predators.

MORE DETAILS

Red crabs contribute to rainforest health by selectively consuming plants, cleaning up leaf litter, turning over the soil and fertilising it with their droppings. Christmas Island's red crab migration occurs at the beginning of the wet season every year.

MORE DETAILS

Christmas Island may not be high on the tourist radar, its expensive to get to, accommodation is also expensive but its unique in its own right. Randomly placed in the Indian ocean, not too far from Indonesia, its a great spot over for yachties.

MORE DETAILS

That means you can score a great deal on popular duty-free items such as fragrances, leather goods, electronics, jewellery, watches and sunglasses. It also means Christmas Island has some of the cheapest alcohol in Australia – perfect for treating yourself to a beer or a gin and tonic as the sun goes down.

MORE DETAILS

Since the detention centre was built on the island in 2006, the island population of about 1,500 locals has jumped dramatically. Mr McDonald says the cost of living is now estimated at about 180 per cent above that on the mainland. An iceberg lettuce at the local store can cost as much as $12.

MORE DETAILS

Early inhabitants of Christmas Island rarely mentioned these crabs. It is possible that their current large population size was caused by the extinction of the endemic Maclear's rat, Rattus macleari in 1903, which may have limited the crab's population.

MORE DETAILS

Christmas Island began appearing on the charts of English and Dutch navigators from the early 1600s. But it wasn't until 1643 that Captain William Mynors of the British East India Company named the island after sighting it on Christmas Day.

MORE DETAILS