The Red Crab's Diet

Red crabs are a variety of land crab found primarily on Christmas Island, Australia. Red crabs are large and usually bright red, though some are colored orange or even purple.

  1. Diet

    • Red crabs are omnivores, eating both plants and meat. They primarily eat fallen leaves, flowers, seeds and fruit. They also eat snails, dead crabs, birds and human trash. Red crabs have no major competition from other species for food.

    Habitat

    • Christmas Island is a tropical rain forest in the Indian Ocean. Because the crabs eat seeds and small seedlings, they have a strong impact on the types of plants that grow there. The crabs burrow in the soil and turn it while leaving behind droppings that fertilize the forest plants.

    Migration

    • Red crabs undergo an annual migration in October to November. At the beginning of the rainy season millions of crabs make their way from the forest to the seashore where they breed and lay eggs. The eggs hatch when they come in contact with sea water and the larvae live in the ocean until they finally change into their crab form.