Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/crabs-invade-campout-australia/

In a B-movie horror twist, one family witnessed first hand the revenge of the crabs while they were enjoying a family picnic on an island off the coast of Australia. They were interrupted by a very terrifying sight: a hoard of large crabs making their way through their campsite. The crabs were pretty scary, but the family didn’t seem to mind at all. They carried on enjoying their meal, even getting a few good pictures of the crabs.

The crabs are known as either robber crabs or coconut crabs. They’re common residents of Christmas Island. While they may be scary in their appearance, they’re absolutely non-threatening to people. Similar to their name “robber crabs,” these crustaceans will scavenge around for food at different campsites in the area. And it seemed that is what those crabs were doing when they stumbled up the family.

The family was tucking into a spring evening barbecue when the crabs showed up. They were very proactive, even climbing the table and the grill in order to search for a bite to eat. The family didn’t seem to mind at all. Even the daughter of one other family, Winter McKendrick, didn’t seem bothered that there were crabs crawling on everything. Amy Luetich, who has lived on Christmas Island with her family for a couple of years, has grown accustomed to scenes like this. She was unfazed and took pictures of the entire scene.

As she explained to Daily Mail Australia, she and her family were in Grant’s Well part of Christmas Island. It happens to be covered by jungle.

Luetich and her family were camping along with several other families. Luetich had noticed a group of around 20 crabs beneath a nearby tree. However, she shared that once her family lit up the barbecue and started cooking, all hell broke loose and the crabs began to swarm their campsite.

Luetich’s son counted around 52 of them in total. She added that her son was entirely thrilled by the crabs and was enjoying collecting them and moving them away from the campsite. The family managed to move the crabs away from the area as best they could, but the crabs were relentless.

Apparently, in the middle of the night, Luetich shared that the other families could hear tapping sounds on their tents throughout the night from the crab claws. Talk about scary!

Luetich shared the pictures she took to a Christmas Island Facebook page, writing about how the crabs crashed their family party. She also added that while these crabs are usually slow-moving, they seemed extra motivated when they got a whiff of the barbecue.

Don’t think I’ll be attending any barbecues on Christmas Island. What do you think of this crab invasion? Have you ever seen anything like it? Let us know!

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog