Responses of crayfish to a reflective environment /
dc.contributor.author | May, Holly Y. | en_US |
dc.date.accessioned | 2009-06-04T14:09:27Z | |
dc.date.available | 2009-06-04T14:09:27Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2007-06-04T14:09:27Z | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10464/1552 | |
dc.description.abstract | This thesis examines how dominance status of crayfish alters responses to their own reflection. Crayfish are social animals that fight to develop a dominance hierarchy consisting of dominant and subordinate members. After socialization, crayfish were videotaped in an aquarium with mirrors on one half of the tank and a non-reflective plastic on the other half. Dominants paired for 14 days perform more cornering, turning, crossing and spent more time in a reflective environment versus a non-reflective environment. Subordinate crayfish exhibit more reverse walking in a mirrored environment while isolated crayfish show no preference for reflection. This change in behaviour occurs immediately for dominants paired for 30 min while subordinates require 3 days of pairing to exhibit the same behaviour as subordinate crayfish paired for 14 days. Thus, 30 min of pairing is required to enhance responses to a reflection observed in dominant crayfish while 3 days is required to decrease subordinate responses to a reflection. These findings propose that male socialized crayfish respond to their mirror image as they do a male conspecific. Their responses depend on both their dominance status and the length of socialization which suggests that crayfish are learning to behave in a characteristic manner as a result of their social experience. | en_US |
dc.language.iso | eng | en_US |
dc.publisher | Brock University | en_US |
dc.subject | Crayfish. | en_US |
dc.subject | Socialization. | en_US |
dc.title | Responses of crayfish to a reflective environment / | en_US |
dc.type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation | en |
dc.degree.name | M.Sc. Biological Sciences | en_US |
dc.degree.level | Masters | en_US |
dc.contributor.department | Department of Biological Sciences | en_US |
dc.degree.discipline | Faculty of Mathematics and Science | en_US |
refterms.dateFOA | 2021-07-16T11:01:29Z |