Terrestrial Hermit Crabs Learning Social Tricks

An anonymous reader writes "When it comes to abandoned snail shells that hermit crabs expropriate as mobile homes, size matters, for room to grow, room for eggs, and protection from predators. UC Berkeley evolutionary biologist Mark Laidre found that terrestrial hermit crabs on the Pacific shore of Costa Rica congregate in aggressive swap meets where one crab is forced from a relatively large shell, whereupon the rest trade up (one loser and multiple winners, pretty good odds). The loser gets the smallest shell, which means likely doom. Laidre and his colleagues note that most hermit crabs live in the ocean, where there are usually enough abandoned shells to go around so most can live, well, hermit-like lives without much interaction with fellow crabs. Not so on land, at least in Costa Rica."

Comments

Terrestrial Hermit Crab Learning Social Tricks

[moniker127]

For a second there, I thought the biology tag said biography, and I got really scared. You don't need to know about my tricks yet.

Occupy Shells

[Beardydog]

What do we want?

SLIGHTLY LARGER SHELLS!

When do we want them?

WHENEVER THREE OR MORE OF US CONGREGATE!!

Written in today's parlance for today's kids

[fustakrakich]

Hermit crabs are the animal kingdom’s most dickish neighbors

...sometimes hermit crabs hang out... and they're invariably total assholes to each other.

Crabs can also be turned into a computer

[girlinatrainingbra]

Crabs can also be used as the logic gates to compute certain functions. I kid you not! The Boston Globe had an article about some Japanese researchers who used crabs to design logic gates based on their motion on the beach.

Their swarm computing article (pdf link in the journal Complex Systems) is rather interesting.

Memories

[jjp9999]

I used to go to Costa Rica during the winters when I was a kid, and I loved watching the hermit crabs. There are TONS of them there. All over the beaches. Crawling in the sand going down to the beach. I actually watched them hijacking shells from each other (although I'd play the good guy and get their shells back sometimes).

Re:Memories

[amanaplanacanalpanam]

You benevolent god you.

Had a pleasure to observe it in Costa Rica

[Anonymous Coward]

A stronger crab with a small damaged shell was trying to pry out a weaker one with new shell. He was probably weak from days of siege. I had to apply quite some force to tear them apart. After a brief isolation under toy buckets I set them free and the stronger crab jumped on his prey again, this time literally getting his foot in the door (they use the larger claw as a door).

There is a nice beach restaurant in Samara, Costa Rica, that I can recommend if you want to see them congregate in huge numbers, right on the sandy restaurant floor.

How democratic of them

[ArsonSmith]

Lets all vote on who gets kicked out of their shell so the rest of society can get an upgrade. That damn 1% doesn't deserve the largest shell.

Re:Sounds like the new American socialism

[TubeSteak]

American socialism?
That's a great talking point.... Until you look at the numbers.

America's wealthiest have gotten that way by indexing wages to inflation for the last few decades and then collecting the fruits of our enormous economic growth.

It also doesn't hurt that they've been bribing^W lobbying for rules in their favor since the Great Depression kicked off strong reforms.

Seriously, go back and read what the founding fathers had to say and look hard at what they did.
They understood that creating a monied aristocracy was a terrible thing and their taxation policies and ideologies reflected that.

Musical Chairs

[Pennidren]

It's like nature's musical chairs... OF DEATH!