Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-pfhbr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T06:39:58.859Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Neighbour density, body size and anti-predator hiding time in the New Zealand mud-crab Austrohelice crassa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2010

M. Guerra-Bobo  and
T.E. Brough
M. Guerra-Bobo*
Affiliation:
Ecology Programme, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
T.E. Brough
Affiliation:
Ecology Programme, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: M. Guerra-Bobo, Ecology Programme, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand email: martaguerra87@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many preys retreat into a refuge as a response to the presence of a predator, a behavioural strategy which guarantees safety but is also costly due to a trade-off between hiding time and time spent in other essential activities. The balance between costs and benefits of hiding, which are influenced by different factors, determine the hiding duration. In a field experiment, the anti-predator behaviour of the mud crab Austrohelice crassa was studied to assess the effects of two factors, body size and neighbour density, on the time spent hiding in burrows following a predator threat. Hiding times, body size (estimated from burrow diameter) and neighbour density (number of other burrows within a 30 cm radius) were measured for 158 individual crabs during a snorkelling survey. Regression analyses showed that hiding time of individual crabs significantly increased with increasing body size, and decreased with increasing neighbour density. These trends are the result of three main selective pressures: size-biased predation risk, dilution of predation in dense clusters of burrows, and more intense competition in dense clusters. Variation among individual crabs probably reflects differences in the balance between costs and benefits for crabs differing in body size and neighbour density.

Keywords

anti-predator behaviourmud crabshiding durationbody-sizeneighbour density
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 91 , Issue 3 , May 2011 , pp. 691 - 694
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Barbosa, P. and Castellanos, I. (2005) Ecology of predator–prey interactions. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beer, C.G. (1958) Notes on the behaviour of two estuarine crab species. Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 86, 197–203.Google Scholar
Drewes, C.D. and Fourtner, C.R. (1989) Hindsight and rapid escape in a freshwater oligochaete. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole 177, 363–371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, W.A. and Treherne, J.E. (1981) Evidence for the dilution effect in the selfish herd from fish predation on a marine insect. Nature 293, 466–467.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, I.M. (2004) Distance to neighbours influences the trade-off between hiding after disturbance and defending food patches in convict cichlids (Archocentrus nigrofasciatus). Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology 56, 530–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hager, M.C. and Helfman, G.S. (1991) Safety in numbers: shoal size choice by minnows under predatory threat. Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology 29, 271–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hugie, D.M. (2003) The waiting game: a ‘battle of waits’ between predator and prey. Behavioural Ecology 14, 807–817.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennions, M.D., Backwell, P.R., Murai, M. and Christy, J.H. (2003) Hiding behaviour in fiddler crabs: how long should prey hide in response to a potential predator? Animal Behaviour 66, 251–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kristensen, E. (2008) Mangrove crabs as ecosystems engineers; with emphasis on sediment processes. Journal of Sea Research 59, 30–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Latham, A.D.M. and Poulin, R. (2001) Effect of acanthocephalan parasites on the behaviour and coloration of the mud crab Macrophthalmus hirtipes (Brachyra: Ocypodidae). Marine Biology 139, 1147–1154.Google Scholar
Latham, A.D.M. and Poulin, R. (2002) Effect of acanthocephalan parasites on hiding behaviour in two species of shore crabs. Journal of Helminthology 76, 323–326.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lim, S. and Diong, C.H. (2004) Burrow–morphological characters of the fiddler crab Uca annulipes and the ecological correlates in a lagoonal beach on Pilau Hantu, Singapore. Crustaceana 76, 1055–1069.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrisey, D.J., DeWitt, T.H., Roper, D.S. and Williamson, R.B. (1999) Variation in the depth and morphology of burrows of the mud crab Helice crassa among different types of intertidal sediment in New Zealand. Marine Ecology Progress Series 182, 231–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reaney, L.T. and Backwell, P.R.Y. (2007) Risk taking behaviour predicts aggression and mating success in a fiddler crab. Behavioural Ecology 18, 521–525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sih, A. (1997) To hide or not to hide? Refuge use in a fluctuating environment. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 12, 375–376.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wolfrath, B. (1992) Burrowing of the fiddler crab Uca tangeri in the Ria Formosa in Portugal and its influence on sediment structure. Marine Ecology Progress Series 85, 237–243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wong, B.B.M., Bibeau, C., Bishop, K.A. and Rosenthal, G.G. (2005) Response to perceived predation threat in fiddler crabs: trust thy neighbor as thyself? Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology 58, 345–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wrona, F.J. and Dixon, R.W.J. (1991) Group-size and predation risk: a field analysis of encounter and dilution effects. American Naturalist 137, 186–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar