Which creature moves in huge groups on Christmas Island?

Christmas Island's mass red crab migration is one of the most incredible natural processes on Earth. Every year, millions of these large crabs emerge from the forest and make their way to the ocean to breed, swarming across roads, streams, rocks and beaches.



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Christmas Island red crabs are famous throughout Australia and the world for their bright red color and for their spectacular annual migration to the sea. Millions of crabs become rivers of red as they move from Christmas Island's interior rainforests to the ocean to breed and lay eggs.

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An internationally renowned seabird rookery, Christmas Island attracts about 80,000 nesting seabirds every year. These include the world's rarest booby and frigatebird.

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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.

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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.

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Yellow crazy ants have spread far across the indo-pacific region often using human shipping and air traffic to migrate into new areas. Image: Wetterer (2005). It is thought that they were accidently introduced to Christmas Island through shipping.

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