Red crabs

The red crab is by far the most obvious of the 14 species of land crabs found on Christmas Island. Millions of these land crabs live over the island. They are a big crab with an adult body shell (or carapace) measuring up to 116 mm across.

The carapace is round shouldered and encloses their lungs and gills. Males are larger than females but females have a much broader abdomen and usually have smaller claws than males.

For most of the year, a crab will settle in one place, living in their burrow. The crabs' burrows have a single entrance tunnel which leads to a single chamber. Only one crab lives in a burrow and (except for the breeding season) red crabs are solitary and do not tolerate intruders into their burrows.