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Fauna, Christmas Island

Christmas Island Tourism Asc.

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source: http://www.christmas.net.au

Red crabs are dotted around the forest floor all over Christmas Island, ponderously raising leaves in their claws to eat and retreating down burrows as you come too close. The annual red crab mass migration to the sea to spawn has been described by ecologists as one of the wonders of the natural world and is Christmas Island's claim to fame amongst naturalists. This phenomenon takes place each year after the start of the wet season, in synchronisation with the cycle of the moon. Nowhere else on earth do crabs occur in these numbers and the spectacle is an experience not to be forgotten.

The land crabs and sea birds are the most noticeable animals on the island. To date 20 terrestrial and intertidal crabs (of which 13 are regarded as true land crabs, i.e., only dependant on the ocean for larval development) have been described. The diversity and abundance of land crabs is not matched by any other island and it has been named "the crabbiest place in the world" and the "kingdom of the crabs". Huge robber crabs, known elsewhere as coconut crabs, are also found here and are capable of opening and devouring coconuts with their strong claws.

The island is also a focal point for sea birds of various species. Eight species or subspecies of sea birds nest on the island. The most numerous is the Red-footed Booby that nests in colonies, in trees, on many parts of the shore terrace. The widespread Brown Booby nests on the ground near the edge of the seacliff and inland cliffs. Abbott's Booby (listed as endangered) nests on tall emergent trees of the western, northern and southern plateau rainforest. The Christmas Island forest is the only known nesting habitat of the Abbott's Booby left in the world. The endemic Christmas Island Frigatebird (listed as endangered) has three well-defined nesting areas on the north-eastern shore terraces and the more widespread.Greater Frigatebirds nest in semi-deciduous trees on the shore terrace with the greater concentrations being in the North West and South Point areas. The Common Noddy and two species of bosuns or tropic birds with their distinctive streamer tail feathers also nest on the island. Of the ten native land birds and shorebirds, seven are endemic species or subspecies. Some 76 vagrant or migrant bird species have been recorded on the island from time to time.

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