THE JOURNEY OF AURORA - Christmas Island - Part 4: Crabs, by @marc-allaria (translated from French)

vcelier (74)in #story • 6 years ago (edited)

This is an authorized translation in English of a post in French by @marc-allaria: LE VOYAGE D'AURORA - STOP#9 - Christmas Island, Episode4, Crabs...!

^{As my primary language is not English, there are probably some mistakes in my translation.}

Remember that the person who speaks here is NOT me, Vincent Celier (@vcelier), but Marc Allaria (@marc-allaria), a French guy.

THE JOURNEY OF AURORA - Christmas Island
Part 4: Crabs

Like me when I discovered this tiny dot on the nautical charts, you've probably never heard of Christmas Island. Yet there is one subject on which this lost island in the Indian Ocean regularly manages to be talked about: Crabs. And yes, crabs are a real institution on Christmas Island. Here as everywhere else, there is a multitude of species of crabs, but two especially hold the spotlight on this tiny piece of land. Red crabs and coconut crabs. Two totally different species with nothing in common except to capture all the attention of the island's residents.

Christmas Island red crabs, Gecarcoidea natalis, are a species that lives in the middle of the forest. It is thus easy and surprising to see them hanging on tree trunks several hundred meters inland. Shelters, food, all their needs are thus earthly needs with the exception of one: the laying of their eggs. Surprisingly, these crabs need to lay eggs at sea during the rainy season. For thousands of years, millions of crabs have been coming down from the forest singing "bawdy songs" (this is to make those who read this text really laugh!), and find the sea for a very collective laying . Everything would continue to go well if Man had not invaded the island by drawing many roads. It is very easy to imagine the disaster, let's call it "crabocide", that would cause every passing of vehicles when crabs flood the roads to reach the sea. For this reason the Australians have designed a labyrinth leading crabs to cross the sea. roads from below, thus limiting road blockage! Well played!

The second species occupying the residents is the coconut crab. Huge crabs whose name comes from their ability to climb coconut trees to find their food. The "Robbers", as they are called here, are especially protected on the island. Unfortunately, cars accidentally crush them. In order to push the population to lift the foot, a game was set up on the island. Some locals as well as the local association has a bright color bomb. Their role is to encircle each unfortunate crushed crab so that the drivers are aware of slowing down when they see circles of color. At the end of the month, the number of circles drawn is indicated on the table of the festivities of the village. The goal is that this number decreases, decreases and decreases again ...!