ScienceDaily (Oct. 26, 2012) — Social
animals usually congregate for protection or mating or to capture bigger prey,
but a University of California, Berkeley, biologist has found that the terrestrial
hermit crab has a more self-serving social agenda: to kick another crab out of
its shell and move into a larger home.
All hermit crabs appropriate
abandoned snail shells for their homes, but the dozen or so species of
land-based hermit crabs -- popular terrarium pets -- are the only ones that
hollow out and remodel their shells, sometimes doubling the internal volume.
This provides more room to grow, more room for eggs -- sometimes a thousand
more eggs -- and a lighter home to lug around as they forage.
But empty snail shells are
rare on land, so the best hope of moving to a new home is to kick others out of
their remodeled shells, said Mark Laidre, a UC Berkeley Miller Post-Doctoral
Fellow who reported this unusual behavior in this month's issue of the
journal Current Biology.
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