Meeting Abstract
Invertebrates and vertebrates alike exhibit wayfinding behaviors when locating and returning to sites of interest such as resource rich food patches or shelters. In particular, the ability to locate these sites successfully is critical for avoiding predation and acquisition of resources. While the spatial scale and the environment may differ and thus dictate the navigational strategy utilized, the task at hand is essentially the same, that is to return to a previously known location. With a rich behavioral repertoire and extensively studied nervous system, crayfish provide an ideal system for comparative research. While their spatial learning abilities and reliance on olfactory cues has been extensively studied, relatively little is known about their homing behaviors when returning to shelters. This study examined the homing behaviors of two comparative species of crayfish, both of which rely on burrows for shelter, while only one constructs them. The species were selected based on the varying degrees of complexity of the environments within which they reside as well as the amount of energy invested in constructing burrows. A homing error was induced by displacing the animals to determine their primary mechanism for homing and to determine whether there were any differences between the two species in terms of homing behaviors.
