Meeting Abstract
Shelters are necessary in order for many animals to survive. It is well known that animals often use shelters for reasons such as protection, breeding, and territoriality. In natural settings it has been shown that crayfish use shelters for protection from predators and conspecifics. However, it is not well understood what types of shelter preference crayfish exhibit under these different environmental pressures. In this study crayfish were subjected to predators or conspecifics and observed on whether or not these factors affect the shelter preference they exhibit. A 152cm circular experimental tank, filled with 61 cm of water, was used as the arena for this project. Submerged in the center of the tank was a Plexiglas test chamber (35.6 x 35.6 x 20.3 cm). An experimental crayfish was placed in the test chamber that consisted of four different shelter types, each of which had a different number of openings. Focal crayfish placed in test chamber were tested in three different behavioral scenarios: 1) no external stimulus (control), 2) a competitor crayfish as the external stimulus, and 3) a small mouth bass acting as a predator. Each scenario consisted of 15 trials that were recorded for 24 hours and then analyzed by observing what shelter the crayfish chose and the duration in which it stayed there. The goal of this experiment is to illustrate that different environmental factors may cause a crayfish to exhibit a different preference based on shelter type.
