Crabs invade Cuba's Bay of Pigs

With the spring rains... come the crabs in Cuba.

It's the march to the infamous Bay of Pigs, undertaken by millions of crabs every year.

"Crab migration responds to reproduction. In other words, they emerge from the ground to reproduce."

Jorge Luis Jimenez of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment says the crustaceans are determined to reach the water, where they dump their eggs into the sea.

There, a new generation hatches. The young crabs will spend a few weeks in the water, before joining their parents on land in forest burrows.

But that journey to and from the sea is a perilous one.

And hungry birds take full advantage.

But because of the sheer volume, the species survives, says Jimenez.

"I'm convinced that millions of crabs crushed by cars on the road die every year, but next year the same millions are there again."


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