The Christmas Island Crab

Two kinds of crabs, and an amazing journey of endurance, love, and life

Not only are these "robber" crabs remarkably large, but they are wonderfully colored, in a rainbow of patches and designs.  No two are the same.

 And then there are the blue crabs, and the marvelous red crabs. They feed on seeds and leaves, which they drag down into their burrows.  Because of their constant foraging, the forest on Christmas Island is different.  There is hardly any undergrowth, so that walking through the bush is like walking through the ruins of a medieval cathedral.

But there is much more to the story of the red crabs of Christmas Island.  Their annual migration is one of the wonders of nature.