Hermit crab response to a visual threat is sensitive to looming cues

Prior work in our lab has shown that an expanding image on a computer screen elicits a hiding response in the Caribbean terrestrial hermit crab ). We conducted two experiments to identify what properties of the expanding stimulus contribute to its effectiveness as a visual threat. First we found tha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) CA), 2017-11, Vol.5, p.e4058-e4058, Article e4058
Main Authors: Shragai, Talya, Ping, Xiaoge, Arakaki, Cameron, Garlick, Dennis, Blumstein, Daniel T, Blaisdell, Aaron P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alarm responses (Animal behavior)
Analysis
Animal Behavior
Anti-predator behavior
Behavior
Hermit crab
Hermit crabs
Looming
Neuroscience
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Summary:Prior work in our lab has shown that an expanding image on a computer screen elicits a hiding response in the Caribbean terrestrial hermit crab ). We conducted two experiments to identify what properties of the expanding stimulus contribute to its effectiveness as a visual threat. First we found that an expanding geometric star evoked a strong hiding response while a contracting or full-sized stationary star did not. A second experiment revealed that the more quickly the stimulus expanded the shorter the latency to hide. These findings suggest that the anti-predator response to looming stimulus relies heavily on visual cues relating to the manner of approach. The simulated visual threat on a computer screen captures key features of a real looming object that elicits hiding behavior in crabs in the wild.
ISSN:2167-8359
2167-8359
DOI:10.7717/peerj.4058