Located at 500km south of Indonesia, and at 1,560km from the town of Exmouth, the closest point of the Australian mainland, Christmas Island is quite isolated, so had a high level of endemism among its flora and fauna. Unfortunately two species of native rats have become extinct, the endemic Christmas Island Shrew has not been seen since the mid-1980s, while the Christmas Island Pipistrelle (a small bat) is critically endangered and possibly also extinct. Now the land crabs and sea birds are the most noticeable fauna on the island. Twenty terrestrial and intertidal species of crab have been described here, of which thirteen are regarded as true land crabs, being only dependent on the ocean for larval development.
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