Data

Owner Advantage in the fiddler crab, Uca mjoebergi. Do owners win more contests than floaters because they are superior fighters?

Australian Ocean Data Network
Fayed, Sarah ; Backwell, Patricia, Dr
Viewed: [[ro.stat.viewed]] Cited: [[ro.stat.cited]] Accessed: [[ro.stat.accessed]]
ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2FANDS&rft_id=https://catalogue.aodn.org.au:443/geonetwork/srv/api/records/ce8d3380-43c9-11dc-972b-00188b4c0af8&rft.title=Owner Advantage in the fiddler crab, Uca mjoebergi. Do owners win more contests than floaters because they are superior fighters?&rft.identifier=https://catalogue.aodn.org.au:443/geonetwork/srv/api/records/ce8d3380-43c9-11dc-972b-00188b4c0af8&rft.description=Resource owners generally win contests against intruders, a phenomenon referred to as the 'Owner Advantage' (OA). Uca mjoebergi is a typical fiddler crab that is highly sociable, territorial and lives in mixed sex colonies on intertidal mudflats. Burrows are used in territory defence, for mating, and as refuge from predators and environmental stresses. Fights are common between owners and floating males who battle for ownership of the territory and burrow. Experiments were conducted from 28th Sept - 30 Dec 2006 at the lower reaches of Ludmilla Creek within East Point Reserve, 5km North of Darwin, NT. This experiment was designed to determine if owner advantage in the fiddler crab Uca mjoebergi, was due to floaters being poorer fighters for their size compared with burrow owners. This was achieved by comparing the fights between owners - prior floaters, with the fights between owners - prior territory owners. In both cases owners won the majority of fights; winning 92.5% of the their fights against prior owners, and 90% of their fights against prior floaters. Therefore prior floaters do not appear to be poorer fighters.Maintenance and Update Frequency: notPlannedStatement: 80 fights were documented in total. To standardise the experiments naturally occurring floaters and naturally occurring territory owners were captured and released individually onto the mudflat (40 of each category). Crabs were observed until their first fight with a resident territory owner. Major claw length (manus+pollex) and carapace width of each male were measured to the nearest 0.1mm using dial callipers. Prior floaters and prior owners were caught and measured before their fights, while natural owners were caught and measured after their fights. Fight duration was either timed in the field using a handheld stopwatch and recorded to the nearest 0.01s, or using a Sony Digital Video Camera after the event.Statement: 80 fights were documented in total. 40 fights were documented between captured naturally occuring floaters and resident territory owners. 40 fights were also documented between captured naturally occuring territory owners and resident territory owners. A standard set of data was collected for each fight. For each fight the date, time, the type of floater, and winner were recorded. Additionally, all crabs were measured, and the fight duration and phases recorded. The winner is the male that owns the territory at the end of a fight. The loser is the crab which walks away at the end of the fight. A fight was considered over when: a) the loser walked >30cm away, b) travelled past two other males territories, c) entered another burrow, or d) started another fight. Parameters: Datatype (1=field, 2=video), encounter ID, date, ltidet (time of diurnal low tide), hightideht (high tide height of the tide which follows the diurnal low tide), rtimet (time of the fight), tsltide (number of minutes since low tide), ctype (condition, RF=removed floater, RO=removed owner), winner, cara (intruder carapace width - mm), chel (inturder cheliped / claw length - mm), ocara (owner carapace width - mm), ochel (owner cheliped / claw length -mm), actions observed (P=push, B=burrow, G=grapple, F=flick, D=dig, TB=true burrow fighting), dura (duration of fight - seconds), digdura (dig duration - seconds), sizediff ( size difference between owner and intruder claws - mm).&rft.creator=Fayed, Sarah &rft.creator=Backwell, Patricia, Dr &rft.date=2007&rft.coverage=130.830175,-12.408046 130.830189,-12.408232 130.830413,-12.408210 130.830349,-12.407976 130.830175,-12.408046&rft.coverage=westlimit=130.5; southlimit=-13; eastlimit=131; northlimit=-12&rft.coverage=westlimit=130.5; southlimit=-13; eastlimit=131; northlimit=-12&rft.coverage=uplimit=0; downlimit=0&rft.coverage=uplimit=0; downlimit=0&rft_rights=Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/&rft_rights=The citation in a list of references is: citation author name/s (year metadata published), metadata title. Citation author organisation/s. File identifier and Data accessed at (add http link).&rft_rights=Please contact Sarah Fayed for access to the data.&rft_subject=biota&rft_subject=Biosphere | Ecological Dynamics | Competition&rft_subject=Biosphere | Ecological Dynamics | Dominance&rft_subject=COMMUNITY STRUCTURE&rft_subject=EARTH SCIENCE&rft_subject=BIOSPHERE&rft_subject=ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS&rft_subject=COMMUNITY DYNAMICS&rft_subject=CRUSTACEANS&rft_subject=BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION&rft_subject=ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES&rft_subject=ARTHROPODS&rft_subject=Fiddler crabs&rft_subject=Uca mjoebergi&rft_subject=28960043&rft_subject=Owner Advantage&rft.type=dataset&rft.language=English Access the data
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Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/

The citation in a list of references is: citation author name/s (year metadata published), metadata title. Citation author organisation/s. File identifier and Data accessed at (add http link).

Please contact Sarah Fayed for access to the data.

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Brief description

Resource owners generally win contests against intruders, a phenomenon referred to as the 'Owner Advantage' (OA). Uca mjoebergi is a typical fiddler crab that is highly sociable, territorial and lives in mixed sex colonies on intertidal mudflats. Burrows are used in territory defence, for mating, and as refuge from predators and environmental stresses. Fights are common between owners and floating males who battle for ownership of the territory and burrow. Experiments were conducted from 28th Sept - 30 Dec 2006 at the lower reaches of Ludmilla Creek within East Point Reserve, 5km North of Darwin, NT. This experiment was designed to determine if owner advantage in the fiddler crab Uca mjoebergi, was due to floaters being poorer fighters for their size compared with burrow owners. This was achieved by comparing the fights between owners - prior floaters, with the fights between owners - prior territory owners. In both cases owners won the majority of fights; winning 92.5% of the their fights against prior owners, and 90% of their fights against prior floaters. Therefore prior floaters do not appear to be poorer fighters.

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Maintenance and Update Frequency: notPlanned
Statement: 80 fights were documented in total. To standardise the experiments naturally occurring floaters and naturally occurring territory owners were captured and released individually onto the mudflat (40 of each category). Crabs were observed until their first fight with a resident territory owner. Major claw length (manus+pollex) and carapace width of each male were measured to the nearest 0.1mm using dial callipers. Prior floaters and prior owners were caught and measured before their fights, while natural owners were caught and measured after their fights. Fight duration was either timed in the field using a handheld stopwatch and recorded to the nearest 0.01s, or using a Sony Digital Video Camera after the event.
Statement: 80 fights were documented in total. 40 fights were documented between captured naturally occuring floaters and resident territory owners. 40 fights were also documented between captured naturally occuring territory owners and resident territory owners. A standard set of data was collected for each fight. For each fight the date, time, the type of floater, and winner were recorded. Additionally, all crabs were measured, and the fight duration and phases recorded. The winner is the male that owns the territory at the end of a fight. The loser is the crab which walks away at the end of the fight. A fight was considered over when: a) the loser walked >30cm away, b) travelled past two other males territories, c) entered another burrow, or d) started another fight. Parameters: Datatype (1=field, 2=video), encounter ID, date, ltidet (time of diurnal low tide), hightideht (high tide height of the tide which follows the diurnal low tide), rtimet (time of the fight), tsltide (number of minutes since low tide), ctype (condition, RF=removed floater, RO=removed owner), winner, cara (intruder carapace width - mm), chel (inturder cheliped / claw length - mm), ocara (owner carapace width - mm), ochel (owner cheliped / claw length -mm), actions observed (P=push, B=burrow, G=grapple, F=flick, D=dig, TB=true burrow fighting), dura (duration of fight - seconds), digdura (dig duration - seconds), sizediff ( size difference between owner and intruder claws - mm).

Notes

Credit
Funded by The Ecological Society of Australia
Credit
Funded by The Australian Research Council (ARC)
Credit
The Australian National University (ANU)
Purpose
To determine if owner advantage in the fiddler crab Uca mjoebergi, was due to floaters being poorer fighters for their size compared with burrow owners.

Issued: 06 08 2007

Data time period: 2006-09-28 to 2006-12-30

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130.83018,-12.40805 130.83019,-12.40823 130.83041,-12.40821 130.83035,-12.40798 130.83018,-12.40805

130.830294,-12.408104

131,-12 131,-13 130.5,-13 130.5,-12 131,-12

130.75,-12.5

text: westlimit=130.5; southlimit=-13; eastlimit=131; northlimit=-12

text: uplimit=0; downlimit=0

Subjects
28960043 | ANIMALS/INVERTEBRATES | ARTHROPODS | BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION | BIOSPHERE | Biosphere | Ecological Dynamics | Competition | Biosphere | Ecological Dynamics | Dominance | COMMUNITY DYNAMICS | Community Structure | Crustaceans | EARTH SCIENCE | ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS | Fiddler crabs | Owner Advantage | Uca mjoebergi | biota |

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  • global : ce8d3380-43c9-11dc-972b-00188b4c0af8