Swarm of crabs return to Cuba's beaches after a 'pandemic-induced recovery'

Migrating crabs around Cuba's Bay of Pigs have emerged early and in unprecedented swarms, according to local residents.

The animals are now flocking to beaches in the area, following two years of the pandemic that allowed them to cross normally trafficked roadways and reproduce in peace.

After the island's spring rains begin, millions of red, yellow and black landcrabs emerge at dawn and dusk and march from the forest across the road and down to the bay on Cuba's southern coast to spawn in the sea.

Most years, untold thousands fall victim to the tires of passing motorists. But for the past two years, the crabs have had the place to themselves, residents say, boosting their size and numbers.

"There was very little traffic, and very little tourism," says Angel Iraola, 46, who guards a parking lot off the winding, crab-infested road that tracks the bay. "There are more crabs now than there have been in many years."

Scientists have yet to confirm initial reports of a pandemic-induced recovery, but Reinaldo Santana Aguilar, a scientist with Cuba's environment ministry, says the onslaught of crabs this year speaks for itself.

"We have observed that the migrations have had an unusually high density of crabs," Aguilar told Reuters. "It is very likely that the crab populations have recovered and that is why there is such a strong migration now."

Tourists whose stay overlapped with a cold front that brought early spring rains to the region were treated to one of the world's most spectacular, and largely intact, animal migrations.

At dawn and dusk the multi-coloured crabs emerge with spawning on the mind, scuttling sideways toward the turquoise sea, climbing up house walls and carpeting the roughly paved coastal road.

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