Monster crab attacks Australian golfers on Christmas Island

An enormous crab unexpectedly joined golfers for a round on Christmas Island and made off with some of their gear after slicing through one of their clubs “like a chainsaw”.

Footage taken on the course shows the huge crab clutching onto the ends of a man’s golf clubs after it appeared to have climbed up his golf bag.

His friend who filmed the video, which was shared to Reddit on Sunday, identified the thief as a coconut or “robber” crab.

He says in the clip the group had returned from putting out on their sixth hole to find the crab there.

“And that’s why we call them a robber crab … And we have not put this here, this has climbed up here while we’ve been putting out,” the man says.

“He’s got a bloody good grip on it – look at that.”

Christmas Island, an Australian territory located in the Indian Ocean about 1500km west of the mainland, is famous for its endemic red crabs that blanket the streets during their annual migration.

But the island is also home to the coconut crab, the world’s largest terrestrial arthropod, which are colloquially known as robber crabs for having a penchant for stealing anything they can get their claws on.

The crab surprised a group of golfers on Christmas Island. Picture: Reddit

One of the golfers unsuccessfully attempted to dislodge it. Picture: Reddit

In the video, a man referred to as “Al” pulls his clubs out of his bag and attempts to gently dislodge the crab without success.

“Al might lose a finger here, and that would be hilarious,” one of the other golfers says.

The crab is then filmed snapping the end off one of his clubs “like a chainsaw” with one of its large pincers.

At the end of the video, the crab is holding the covering from the end of one of the clubs despite the golfer’s best efforts.

His friend filming the daylight robbery says: “You know what, just let him have it, mate. He’s won the victory – he’s beaten us.”

A Reddit user responded to the video to say they had lived on Christmas Island and claimed to have seen some coconut crabs that were larger than Jack Russell terriers.

“They really like coming out after dusk and can be like a bit of a horror scene sometimes when you're having a barbie and a swarm of them start coming in from the trees,” they said.

At their largest, coconut crabs can weigh more than 4kg and grow up to 1m in width from the tip of one leg to the tip of another.