Christmas Island is a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. It’s pretty small (52 square miles, or about three-quarters of the size of Washington, D.C.), sparsely populated (it’s home to only 1,402 people), and relatively distant from Australia itself (1,600 miles, or 3,000 kilometers, northwest of the Western Australian City of Perth).
Christmas Island is a very special, interesting place, though (and not just because of its name – which it got because it was discovered on Christmas Day, 1643). Every November, something amazing happens. More than 100 million red crabs migrate to and through Christmas Island to spawn. Words don’t do this phenomenon justice. For the full effect, see the video below:
