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The great red crab migration

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Tens of millions of red crabs have begun their annual migration on Christmas Island, near Australia.

This yearly event sees around 50 million red crabs travel from their homes in the island forests to the ocean.

The red crab’s migration starts with the first rainfall of the wet season. On Christmas Island, this is usually between October and November, but can sometimes be as late as December.

The crabs are travelling to the ocean to mate and lay their eggs.

Once they’ve mated, the female crabs stay in little burrows on the beach for a few weeks whilst their eggs grow. Then, with that done, the crabs will head back home into the forests.

Local people have built crab bridges to help the crabs get around tricky obstacles like roads, and the local radio stations provide people with updates on their movements.

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