Wild footage shows an ‘army’ of red crabs on Christmas Island

Wild footage shows an “army” of red crabs marching down Christmas Island roads as part of one of the “world’s most fascinating migrations”.

A sea of red crabs have begun to swarm Christmas Island, marching down streets in droves as they make their annual mass migration.

Each year, tens of millions of crabs on Christmas Island, 1500km from the Australian mainland, make the journey from the forest to the coast to mate and spawn.

The movement, deemed one of the “world’s most fascinating migrations”, is triggered by the first substantial rain of the wet season.

Wild footage shared on social media by Christmas Island Tourism this week shows a “red crab army” on the move, sprawling through the forest following recent bouts of rainfall.

“Decorating Christmas Island red for Christmas,” the post reads.

“A later wet season has meant a more sporadic migration but this lot are definitely on their mission!”

Each year tens of millions of crabs march from the forest to the coast. Picture: Facebook/Christmas Island Tourism

The migration is triggered by the first substantial rain of the wet season. Picture: Facebook/Christmas Island Tourism

Christmas Island Tourism also warned visitors to be aware of roads that have been closed to facilitate the migration.

“We thank you for your patience over the next few weeks and ask you respect the wildlife and drive slowly, taking care with those assisting with raking the roads.”

Park Manager Derek Ball said the red crab is the island’s “keystone species” and the entire community helps out to facilitate the migration.

“To help the red crabs safely make their journey from the forest to the sea, national park staff install road barriers, crab bridges and undertake traffic management, with many members of the island community pitching in and helping out,” he said in a statement.

Road barriers and crab bridges are installed to help with the migration. Picture: Facebook/Christmas Island Tourism

The crabs are a ‘keystone species’ on Christmas Island. Picture: Facebook/Christmas Island Tourism

Staff have also helped support the red crab population by targeting their biggest threat – the invasive yellow crazy ant.

“By reducing their numbers, the red crab population numbers are higher than we’ve seen in decades which is an outstanding result not only for the red crabs, but for the entire island ecosystem.”

The effort has seen the amount of red crabs double from 50 million to more than 100 million in the last five years.

Tanya Plibersek, Environment and Water Minister called the mass migration an “iconic natural phenomenon”.

“[It] is not just incredible to see, but a fantastic success story of how we can work together to better protect our precious native species,” she said in a statement.

Amy Luetich, who has been living on Christmas Island for years, said her family was swarmed by dozens of crabs while camping in 2021.

“We have camped in that area a few times and we have never seen so many,” she previously told Daily Mail.

“But as soon as we started cooking, they swarmed around us. My son counted 52 of them,” she recalled.

“His job was to pick them up and move them away from where we were eating … We kept our tents away from where we had eaten, but one of the families said the whole night they could feel one tapping on the outside of their tent.”