Are juvenile crayfish attracted to their natural predators?
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1
University of Maryland, Psychology, and Neuroscience and Cognitive science Program, United States
Behavioral or morphological changes in response to chemicals released by other animals are well documented especially in aquatic animals. A number of aquatic animals can detect chemical cues of potential predators, as well as potential alarm signals released by disturbed or injured conspecifics. Previous studies have tested the response of crayfish to water containing chemical cues of predators, or crushed conspecifics, and found that in some crayfish species the exposed animals altered their behavior by reducing locomotion and expressing more defensive body postures. However, none of these studies measured the behavioral responses of crayfish when tested with natural predators and injured conspecifics. Surprisingly, when we placed a single juvenile crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) in a tank with a dragonfly nymph feeding on a conspecific, none of the tested crayfish exhibited any anti-predatory behaviors but unsuspectingly approached the predator and the captured conspecific. Since crayfish are cannibalistic, we hypothesized that they may be attracted to the captured conspecific because it releases unknown signals into the water indicating a potential feeding opportunity. In addition, crayfish might consider the risk of approaching the predator negligible because they can produce fast and powerful tail-flip behaviors to counter potential attacks. We then performed a series of Y-maze choice experiments to compare the responses of crayfish to dragonfly nymph predators and to injured conspecifics. We found that when given a choice between a predator feeding on a crayfish in one arm and an injured crayfish in the other arm of the maze, the tested crayfish spent significantly more time in the arm containing the predator and its prey. Moreover, when given a choice between the dragonfly nymph in one arm and an empty arm, crayfish spent significantly more time in the arm containing the predator. Lastly, we compared the choice between an injured conspecific in one arm and an empty arm, and found that tested crayfish showed a slight but non-significant preference for the injured conspecific. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, this suggests that crayfish are actually attracted to their predators and not the captured conspecifics. We are currently determining the sensory signals that mediate predator attraction.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (IOS-0919845).
Keywords:
Alarm responses,
cannibal,
crayfish,
Dragonfly nymph,
Predator attraction,
predator-prey interactions,
Procambarus clarkii,
tailflip
Conference:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology, College Park. Maryland USA, United States, 5 Aug - 10 Aug, 2012.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation (see alternatives below as well)
Topic:
Ecology
Citation:
Uma
D and
Herberholz
J
(2012). Are juvenile crayfish attracted to their natural predators?.
Conference Abstract:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnbeh.2012.27.00196
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Received:
29 Apr 2012;
Published Online:
07 Jul 2012.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Divya Uma, University of Maryland, Psychology, and Neuroscience and Cognitive science Program, College Park, MD, 20742, United States, duma@umd.edu