Nature

Christmas Island is one of the world’s most extraordinary nature destinations.

Our tiny island’s remote location between Asia and Australia has produced an intense concentration of plants and animals, many of which aren’t found anywhere else on the planet. This huge biodiversity means that Christmas Island is often referred to as ‘the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean’.

The island is also known as the kingdom of the crabs. You can see more than 20 different land crabs here, including the enormous robber crab. But our best-known crustaceans are the tens of millions of red crabs, whose annual migration from the rainforest to the ocean is one of the world’s great natural spectacles.

Around 80,000 seabirds call the island home, including gorgeous frigatebirds and the endangered Abbott’s booby.

Offshore, coral reefs teem with hundreds of tropical fish species and many other marine animals. Visitors often get the chance to swim or dive with dolphins, whale sharks, turtles and mantas.

The island’s unique geology supports an array of native plants, many of which have evolved specifically to thrive in the Christmas Island environment.

Protecting all of these natural marvels is essential, so national park staff run a number of conservation programs to preserve the island’s unique and fragile ecosystems.