Crayfish Lab

Erin Gaughan Kazuko Kato Jeff Chudacoff Rajiv Lala Ronald Walton The Crayfish Experience All living organisms defend their territory through different actions. In this lab, we studied some of the methods the crayfish use to defend their habitats. These behaviors are not just exclusive to the crayfish, they are universal to all animals. The behaviors exhibited through territoriality have developed through evolution and give evidence of natural selection. We put our crayfish into a tank. The crayfish became familiar with the tank, and marked it as his territory. When a new crayfish was added, our crayfish felt his territory was being invaded and needed to show dominance in order to protect his territory. Our crayfish needed to perform aggressive behaviors to show the other crayfish that the tank was his territory. After our crayfish showed its dominance the other crayfish portrayed submissive behaviors. Our video expresses the aggressive and submissive behaviors of crayfish. We included clips of our crayfish and the intruder crayfish exhibiting the majority of the agonistic and submissive behaviors. To make the concept as clear as possible, our video consists of the name of the behavior we are showing, a description of the behavior, and the actual crayfish interaction. The music was chosen to go along with the behavior of the crayfish. We simplified the concepts as much as possible to make them more understandable for the viewer. Our lab communicates the difference between dominant and submissive behaviors, the behaviors associated with territoriality, and the behavior and response to stimuli of crayfish developed through evolution. Crayfish defend their territory through vocalizations and chemical markers, and then, as a last resort, agonistic behavior. These behaviors intended to maintain territorial boundaries and keep intruders out. The focus of our lab was the aggressive and submissive behaviors because these were the easiest to document. There are seven aggressive behaviors a crayfish might use to defend its territory.