Title:

Cognitive Abilities of Caribbean Hermit Crabs in Navigating a Known Location

Navigation is essential for an animal’s survival as they must understand the area they live in to find resources and shelter. Coenobitidae is one of the many Families of hermit crabs that uses multiple sensory cues, such as tactile, visual, chemical, and olfactory, to navigate, but it is not understood if one modality is more important than the others. The goal of this study is to ascertain the relative importance of visual and chemical cues in how Caribbean hermit crabs (Coenobita clypeatus) navigate a familiar space. The hermit crabs will first learn a simple maze with access to chemical cues (the scent of food) and no visual restraints. After learning the puzzle, four different treatments will be conducted, each with a different combination of access to chemical and visual cues: blindfolded with food, blindfolded without food, seeing with food, and seeing without food. I will use speed to complete the maze to determine which navigational cue aids the hermit crabs the most. I hypothesize that the hermit crabs will be most efficient at solving the maze given no visual restraints and a chemical cue of food, as past studies have shown, they use combinations of cues to navigate best. Hermit crabs play an important role in regenerating energy into the ecosystem and are prey for many species, so as the environment continues to change, it is important that these bottom-dwellers are able to adapt.

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