Baby red crabs emerging from the ocean - video
Christmas Island National Park - Baby red crabs emerging from the ocean from Parks Australia on Vimeo.
Transcript
At Flying Fish Cove on Christmas Island, young red crabs began emerging from the sea.
Two days after the shipwrecked MV Tycoon spilled oil and phosphate into the cove, the baby crabs came in their thousands.
And next day and next, in their hundreds of thousands - perhaps millions.
The red crabs will now make their ritual march up to the rainforest, where they play a vital part keeping the forest healthy.
Red crabs are found only on Christmas Island where they feed on dead crabs and fallen plants, cleaning the forest floor, fertilising the forest with their droppings and aerating the soil with their burrows.
The locals were delighted that the heavy swells and currents seemed to have broken up the oil - leaving a clean migration pathway on the south western end of the cove for these unique creatures.
Footage supplied by:
Braydon Moloney - baby crabs
Tim the Yowie Man - adult crabs
Christmas Island red crab park notes
For more information about our red crabs see our park notes >>
