SYDNEY: Unusually dry climate has delayed the annual migration of tens of millions of Christmas Island purple crabs from the island’s inside to the ocean the place they mate.
There are over 100 million purple crabs on Christmas Island within the Indian Ocean, a lot of which is designated as a nationwide park. The crabs are distinctive to the island and guarded by Australian regulation.
Authorities say “exceptionally dry” situations have put a dampener on this season’s migration, the place the mass of purple crabs often blocks off site visitors in a traditional yr.
“Within the final 12 months, we bought about half our common rainfall for that time period, and that was sufficient to make the island look extraordinarily determined, dry and dusty,” mentioned Brendan Tiernan, the threatened species subject programme coordinator for Parks Australia.
“And it stored the crabs from migrating.”
This yr is the primary time the crabs have migrated as late as February since Parks Australia began monitoring migration within the Eighties, he added.
The migration sees the crabs journey from the inside of the island to the ocean, the place they mate. The females then keep behind in burrows close to the ocean to hatch their eggs and the males return inland.
