You’ve probably noticed that photos by one of our most regular regulars—Stephen Barnard of Idaho—have been missing. That’s because he was on “Christmas Island” in the Pacific, more properly known as Kiritimati. Like Aldabra, home of the tortoises, it’s a coral atoll. Here’s where it is and what it looks like (I have no idea what Stephen was doing there, but I suspect he was fishing):
The island is part of the Republic of Kiribati, the group of islands shown below (there are 33 islands and atolls spread over 3.5 million km²; the land belonged to the UK but became independent in 1979). I believe that Kiritimati is the bottom island in the group of three at the upper right of the Kiribati group, right above the Equator:
But we’re here for the photos, right? So here are some, with Stephen’s notes (he adds “I didn’t take my good camera gear so these photos aren’t up to the usual standards”).
Mantis Shrimp (suborder Unipeltata, species unknown). This is one of several caught by the guides in Christmas Island. These huge shrimp are fierce predators, resembling an alien nightmare. They’re caught by dangling a small fish above the hole they make and inhabit. They spear the fish with their formidable claws and are pulled out. They’re delicious, resembling lobster in texture and flavor, but more sweet and tender.
Black Noddy or White-capped Noddy (Anous minutus) and chick. Bird Island, Christmas Island, Kiritimati, Republic of Kiribati. There were hundreds, possibly thousands. I’d have more than doubled your views from Kiribati if I’d had Internet.
I see the likeness of a loving same-sex couple (female) on the back of this crab (species unknown). A sign from God?
And. . . Christmas island cats. Stephen says, “Extremely wary — essentially feral, but tolerated around housing to kill mice.”
Wow! These are great, Stephen.
I couldn’t see myself eating a Mantis shrimp — it’s so pretty! (Then there’re the cows and lambs and birdies… I might have to give up meat altogether…. sigh.)
I had no sympathy for the mantis shrimp because they kill fellow vertebrates. 🙂
*How* many legs has that thing got?
cr
They’re pretty aggressive, true enough. If I tried one, I’d have to save the exoskeleton, for my crazy collection. They are beautiful, if deadly predators.
“I had no sympathy for the mantis shrimp because they kill fellow vertebrates.”
Which is obviously much worse than vertebrates killing vertebrates. 😉
I expect in the future we will see more photos from Stephen, which I will look forward to. Fish pictures are likely.
Looks like an amazing trip, full of exotica.
Wow. I had no idea that mantis shrimp were so large. I thought they were typically finger size.
I think there are quite a few species of various sizes.
Yes, I was fishing. Kiritibati is a popular destination for bonefishing. I also caught some very large trigger fish and some giant trevally. I have some “hero shots” of me holding fish, but I only inflict those on my fishing friends.
Did you take Deets? 🙂
No Deets. I hate to see d*gs in the tropics. The climate doesn’t agree with them and they’re usually neglected.
By the way, feral cats have caused enormous damage to the endemic species on Kiritibati.
I remember you talking about this trip a while back. Sounds like you had a blast.
I just did a search about crabs on Christmas island, and of course the majority of the pix are the famous red land crabs that mass migrate to the sea to spawn. Also giant coconut crabs. So that was interesting.
Anyway, I think the pro same-sex marriage crab above is a species of ghost crab.
There’s a Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean too. I think that’s the one with the red crabs.
The red crabs are from the other Christmas Island. Kiribati has coconut crabs. When I was there in 2000 I made the mistake of picking one up from behind, like I’d safely pick up a blue crab. It didn’t work.
Was it painful? Can you still count to ten – on your fingers? 😉
cr
Pleased to see Christmas Island is alive and well because it was where Britain tested our Hydrogen bombs back in the ’50s.
The U.S. tested there, too. It was very arrogant. They didn’t evacuate or even adequately inform the population.
I have news for you. Or maybe not!
They didn’t adequately inform the “testers” either.
The US tests were airbursts in an area 10 miles or so south of the island. Airbursts tend to not have a lot of localized fallout, unlike all those ground tests like they did in Nevada.
If the testing was done with some sense of responsibility it would have been done at times when wind was blowing away from the island, but I don’t know if that was the case.
That mantis shrimp – gosh, I had no idea such a thing existed!
They’re sometimes called “thumb splitters” because of the damage they can inflict.
I can never think about mantis shrimp (which I do, surprisingly often) without thinking of this Oatmeal comic:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp
I read that and I’m going to have nightmares tonight…
cr
Wow!
I used to keep coral reef tanks and mantis shrimp are the bane of reefers. They’ll kill all the fish within weeks. Never seen one lobster-size though. That’s just ridiculous!
Thanks for the vicarious experience of Christmas island.
I’ve read that they can break aquarium glass.
I’ve read that too…luckily, that never happened to me.
“more properly known as Kiritimati.”
Which is of course just ‘Christmas’ transliterated into the local dialect. Though (having just got lost in Google) I guess it is a convenient way to distinguish from the other Christmas Island.
Its main settlements according to Wikipedia are Tabwakea, London, Banana (yay!), Poland and Paris (abandoned). I suspect much Western influence, probably dating from the H-bomb tests.
If you locate it on Google Maps and select ‘Satellite View’ and zoom in, that patchy area in the middle (visible in the airphoto at top of this page) resolves into the most extraordinary network of stringy bits of reef interspersed with pools. If you zoom in, the damn thing’s nearly fractal.
cr
That’s the lagoon, where we fish. It’s a very active type of fishing, requiring a lot of walking around in shallow water looking for bonefish, triggers, and trevally. It’s a long day: breakfast at 5:45, boats out at 6:30, on the flats around 7:30, back to base around 5:00pm.
Just looking at Satellite View, the whole area appears to be a mass of pools, some of them interconnected by little passages through the dividing coral reefs, some not. It must take a vast amount of local knowledge to not get ‘lost’ in the maze and stranded, unabled to find your way back to open water again.
cr
Thanks for pointing that out, that’s amazing! I’ll bet they’re pretty worried about climate change!
The head guide (whose name is pronounced Ekkes, but is spelled completely differently, as is typical) told me a harrowing story. El Nino has been kicking Kiritibati’s ass. His brother, who was in the business of collecting fish for the aquarium trade, was out in the jetty in an SUV with three other people two weeks before. A freak wave swept them into the sea and all were killed.
How tragic!
Love the noddies , Stephen! Were they loud?
They were making quite a ruckus, as were the White Terns.
Oh, I’d love to see pictures of them as well.