Brief description
The behaviour of U. capricornis is not well-known. Consequently, observations were made for approximately 1100 hours over 4 seasons to obtain a general picture of their social system and behaviour. The study was conducted on a large population of Uca capricornis in the vicinity of the mangrove boardwalk in the East Point Reserve, Darwin. Fieldwork was conducted yearly from November-January, 2002-2006. To obtain a more detailed description of the relationship between males and females, the natural interactions between males and females living as nearest neighbours were recorded. Twenty-one pairs were filmed from overhead for a period of 30 minutes. Any activity was noted, as was any interactions with intruders. Territoriality was also examined, providing the overall area covered by the crabs within the half hour. By aligning the male and female territories with their respective burrows it was possible to determine the area overlap between them.Lineage
Statement: 21 pairs of crabs were observed for 30 minutes from directly overhead with a Sony TRV110 camera. To examine territoriality the video was digitised and crabs positions were tracked every second. This was to determine how often each crab was nearer to his or her partner's burrow entrance than the partner was itself. This raw, positional data is provided in an excel document with the following parameters: Pair code, x-y coordinates of the male and female burrows, time (seconds), female position (x-y) every second and male position (x-y) every second. Territory size was documented by converting the crabs position every second into a circle with a radius of 5cm, as an estimate of the area covered by the crab as it moved. The result was a bitmap image of the overall area covered by the crab over half an hour, which was converted into an estimate of the actual area using the public domain Scion Image (Alpha 4.0.3.2) program (Scion Corporation). By aligning the male and female territories with their respective burrows we could also determine the area of overlap between them. This information is provided in a second excel document with the following parameters: Male and female crab identification numbers, the distance between them (cm), territory covered by individual crabs in 30 minutes (cm2), total area covered by the pair (cm2), combined area (cm2), area overlap (cm2), % of female's territory that overlaps and % of males territory that overlaps.Notes
CreditAustralian Research Council (ARC) Centre for Excellence for Vision Science
Credit
Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grant
Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grant
Credit
The Centre of Visual Sciences (CVS, The Australian National University)
The Centre of Visual Sciences (CVS, The Australian National University)
Credit
The Australian National University PhD Scholarship
The Australian National University PhD Scholarship
Purpose
To obtain a general picture of the social system and behaviour of male-female fiddler crabs of the species Uca capricornis.
To obtain a general picture of the social system and behaviour of male-female fiddler crabs of the species Uca capricornis.
Issued: 16 08 2007
Data time period: 2002-11 to 2006-11
text: westlimit=130.5; southlimit=-13; eastlimit=131; northlimit=-12
text: uplimit=0; downlimit=0
Subjects
28 960036 |
ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES |
ARTHROPODS |
BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION |
Behavioural Ecology |
Crustaceans |
EARTH SCIENCE |
Fiddler Crab |
Male-female interactions |
Ocypodidae |
Territorial behaviour |
Uca capricornis |
area_covered |
area_overlap |
biota |
combined_area_covered |
crab_code |
distance |
territory_area_covered |
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Other Information
Paired crab co-ordinates measured every second for the duration of the 30min. experiments (total_capri_digitised.xls)
Territory size and overlap between individuals (Male_female_interactions.xls)
global : 7ac5fb10-4f77-11dc-87ba-00188b4c0af8
Identifiers
- global : 4563fbe0-4bb0-11dc-a1f2-00188b4c0af8
