Fiddler Crabs

In Nature_ v. 430, 22 July 2004, p. 417,

The brief communication report "Coalition among male fiddler crabs" describes observations in the wild that "indicate that a resident will strategically help a neighbour to defend its territory against an intruder."

When a crab sees one of its neighbors fighting with a wandering crab, it will go so far as "to vacate his own territory temporarily to join the fight" against the intruder "when they were most likely to have a beneficial effect" and "when their neighbour was more likely to lose their territory."

In other words, these crabs will help their smaller neighbors chase off intruders when they're also bigger than the intruder, even though there's still some risk that another crab will sneak into their own burrow while they're gone, or that they will lose a claw in the fight. Their only benefit is keeping a "known," smaller neighbor that doesn't bother them.

"The circumstances under which assistance was provided appeared to involve judicious decision-making. That this occurs in an invertebrate, but has still not been reported in birds or mammals, suggests that territorial coalitions depend more on appropriate circumstances than on advanced cognitive skills."

In other words, if teeny little crabs (I have some in my aqua-terrarium) can appear to use "strategic thinking" then we shouldn't be too quick to ascribe thought processes to more advanced animals based on relatively simple behaviors.

I don't know how many neurons fiddler crabs are blessed with, but I bet it would be a real challenge to program all their behaviors, especially in the light of this study, in an equivalent computer chip.

Until Next Time,

David Bump
Philippians 3: 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. http://home.att.net/~david.bump