2024/12/13 by Atriya Beisigl, Qian, Darcy, Angelo, Elyssa +1
#aggression #blueband hermit crab (Pagurus samuelis) #exploration #fearfulness #hermit crab shell attributes
paper · doi:10.21973/n3p95h
Resource limitation is often an instigator of aggressive behavior in animals, in addition to their personality and general activity levels. Intertidal hermit crabs are one such system in which assertive and aggressive behavior is motivated by the lack of empty shells, a highly desired, limiting resource. Hermit crabs frequently engage in shell fights and other aggressive interactions over high-quality, well-fitting shells, and the attributes of a crab’s shell play an important role in how it interacts with other individuals with differing shell attributes. We collected blueband hermit crabs (Pagurus samuelis) based on 4 combinations of shell attributes (shell size and shell quality) and subjected them to 4 different types of ex-situ interaction trials. We categorized the observed interactions as “aggressive”, “exploratory”, and “fearful”, and summed scores for each category. We found that smaller-shelled crabs engaged in fewer aggressive behaviors, more exploratory behavior, and more fearful behavior compared to their larger-shelled opponents, and that shell quality did not impact behavior. We also found that the greatest number of aggressive interactions occurred when a crab with a small, high-quality shell opposed a crab with a small, low-quality shell. Our findings suggest that a complex relationship exists between shell size/quality and crab behavior, which may be influenced by a crab’s position within social hierarchies, extrinsic environmental factors, or a combination of both.