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Hermit crabs

Hermit crabs usually are found in empty gastropod shells, seeking protection from predators, desiccation, and other hermit crabs. The hermit crab does not seem to select a place to stay at random but rather appears to have a selection process. Precisely what this process is and how the crab makes a decision as to what shell to select and what shell to reject is the subject of much research.

Hermit crabs are crustaceans that live in the wild in the western Atlantic. They mate on land near the sea, and once the eggs develop, the female carries the eggs on her abdomen to the sea and leaves them on wet sand or a wet rock for the tide to carry out to sea. There are usually 1,000 to 50,000 eggs at a time. At sea, the crabs are small larvae that molt several times in order to grow to adulthood. At the adult larvae stage, the hermit crabs begin looking for a shell to live in, and once it finds a suitable shell, it lives on land for the rest of its life. They grow on land by shedding their exoskeleton. In the wild, hermit crabs can live up to 25 or 30 years. Hermit crabs are scavengers with a strong sense of smell. They are nocturnal. Hermit crabs are considered ideal for research into decision-making. When an animal stops performing one activity, it must decide what activity to perform next; this is called a "decision point." At any given time, causal factors for several different potential activities are likely to be present, and the question arises as to how the animal selects which activity to perform. In most animals, assessments can only be inferred based on the decisions the animals make, but with hermit crabs the assessment procedure itself can be observed and the sequence of investigatory acts can be recorded and the timing of decisions noted. The researcher can alter the shells so they convey different information to the animal, after which the consequences can be determined. Hermit crabs are known to contest the ...

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Hermit crabs. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 02:47, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1700685.html