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Red Crab Habitat

Posted by
Darkelf Photography (Perth, Australia) on 21 March 2023 in Plant & Nature.

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Christmas Island's most famous residents, the red crabs, scattered around the massive roots of a strangler fig tree. We did not witness the annual migration but there were still plenty of them see on the island. Shady areas are their preferred spots and they love overcast conditions too. This is when we saw the crabs in the largest numbers. Often we could just hear their legs and claws touching the rocks and branches in 'tap, tap, tap" kind of a sound. The red crabs would move away when we approached but they were not as easily spooked as as their blue brothers, which would run away at the first sight of us. Red crabs were quite inquisitive and they would come out and poke our boots if we stood still for a moment or two.

The red colour of their bodies stood out on the busy forest floor but it was still a challenge to find a good location to photograph them in larger numbers. Rainforests are beautiful but they can also be very chaotic environments with leaves, branches, roots, and rocks going everywhere. When we were hiking through the forest, I was looking constantly for an interesting spot to combine the characteristics of the landscape with the red crabs to try and show their natural habitat. They burrow holes to create their homes in the soft muddy ground and we had to be careful not to step on these holes and damage these dwellings.

I managed to spot these large roots of another strangler fig tree (you can see the previous one here) and found a swarm of red crabs roaming between them. These ones were not frightened at all and just went about their business as I took some photos. I was switching between different ISO values to minimise the potential for crabs to become blurry due to their constant movement. Because of the overcast weather, the light was uniform and I did not have to worry about adjusting the overall exposure all the time. I was able to use my tripod this time and it was just a matter of catching the crustaceans remaining still enough for the photo to work.

In post processing work I concentrated on shaping the light in the scene towards the crabs and on adding a bit of contrast to the roots to give them more dimension. Similar to the locomotive image posted recently, I also worked on colour separation to ensure that the crabs could be seen easily enough on the ground. I decided against cleaning up the forest floor from too much debris. My main aim here was to show the crabs in their natural environment. One of their roles in the rainforest is to actually clean up the ground from the broken branches and old leaves. Red crabs contribute to rainforest health by selectively consuming plants, cleaning up leaf litter, turning over the soil and fertilising it with their droppings. They mostly eat fallen leaves, fruits, flowers and seedlings. However, they are not strictly vegetarian and will also eat other dead crabs, birds and the introduced giant African snail.

I was a little bit out of my natural habitat taking photos different to the usual landscapes and seascapes but I enjoyed the entire exercise very much. Observing the crabs doing their daily activities was fantastic and it was a great learning experience all around.

Canon EOS R5 4/5 seconds F/8.0 ISO 400 24 mm

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