Every year on Australia's Christmas Island, 50 million red crabs leave their forest burrows and migrate on mass down to the coast to spawn into the sea. Their eggs hatch on contact with the water and then drift with the ocean currents for about a month, slowly transforming from plankton-like critters with tails into tiny crabs.
If it's a good year and the ocean currents happen to bring them back to the island in time, then those that are not eaten by whale sharks clamber ashore and begin their march into the jungle, smothering everything in their way in a spectacular red carpet.
Some years there are almost none, but 2016 when this video was shot was an unprecedented year, with more baby crabs returning than ever before.
Join us in May every year for our 1 week photo tour of this incredible tropical paradise. Check out www.ChrisBrayPhotography.com for details.
