Because locals are not allowed to eat these red crabs, which are protected by law.

What's going on as more than 50 million red crabs migrate in Australia?

Every year, from the end of October to the beginning of January is the rainy season on Australia's Christmas Island, and the best time for red crab migration. At this time of year, thousands of red crabs run from the rainforest plateau to the beaches of the Indian Ocean, migrating over ten kilometers. At this time, you can always see the vast army of red crabs on the local highways close to the coast, and it's a spectacular sight.

They often have to go through many trials and tribulations during their migration of more than ten kilometers.

Will die from lack of and extreme sun exposure, and some will be run over by passing vehicles as they pass over roads or railroad tracks. It is known that about one million red crabs are run over by cars each year during migration. In response, the local government has developed a series of measures to protect migrating red crabs, such as closing roads and setting up red crab? Specialized channel? to reduce the casualties of red crabs. In addition, there are explicit regulations in Australia that fish, shrimps and crabs in inland rivers cannot be fished. This series aims to protect the red crab as a species and reduce its innocent deaths due to migration or man-made.

Why are these red crabs moving together?

The red crab that lives on Christmas Island is actually a land crab. Adult individuals may drown if they receive too much water, so they usually live mainly in the island's forests. The red crabs dig their own burrows one by one, which prevents direct sunlight from causing high temperatures, otherwise the red crabs would die from too much water loss. To avoid the hot sun, red crabs often leave their nests at night to start foraging for food. On weekdays, red crabs have a narrow range and hardly leave the nest. However, in October-December, adult red crabs are ? gene? driven to the sea to mate with the opposite sex and lay eggs. It takes an average of seven days per red crab to travel from home to sea, one of the highest mortality rates. Today, of course, to protect the red crabs, islanders close roads during their migration or open them up to allow them to do so.

(Image courtesy of the Internet.