Living in Christmas Island | Where 100 Million Red Crabs Rule Over 1,700 People | Documentary

Living on Christmas Island: every year about 100 million red crabs walk to the sea, and the 1,700 people who live there step aside. Discover how life works on this remote island. Christmas Island is a tiny Australian island in the Indian Ocean, about 350 km south of Java and 2,600 km from Perth. Its forest is home to roughly 100 million red crabs on the move in a big year, from a total population of about 200 million. Its people number just 1,692 (2021 census). When the first rains of the wet season arrive, the crabs march to the sea, roads close, and the whole island rearranges its life around them. In this documentary, we explore how people live on an island where the crabs come first. You will learn how the island was named in 1643, how phosphate brought the first settlers, why the crabs migrate and spawn on a receding tide in the last quarter of the moon, how baby crabs climb 80-meter sea cliffs, how yellow crazy ants killed millions of crabs and how a tiny wasp helped, and what life is like on one of the most remote communities in the Indian Ocean. We also look at the phosphate mine, the casino and the detention centre, and why the people who live here choose to stay. Chapters: 00:00 The island where crabs stop the traffic 01:10 Where is Christmas Island? 03:08 Discovery, phosphate and the first settlers 06:50 Meet the red crab 09:14 The great migration 12:00 Living with the crabs 14:56 The baby crabs climb the cliffs 16:54 The yellow crazy ant invasion 20:01 Wildlife of the island 21:02 Life on Christmas Island 22:20 The mine and the future 24:27 Why do people stay? Some visuals in this film are AI-generated illustrations and animations created to help tell the story. The narration is a synthetic voice. Sources: Parks Australia (Christmas Island National Park), ABC News, SBS News, CNN, NRDC, Wikipedia, and published reports on the island's history, wildlife and economy. If this journey made you curious, subscribe to Hidden Atlas for more films about the most extraordinary places to live on Earth. #ChristmasIsland #RedCrabs #TravelDocumentary #Australia #HiddenAtlas