Hermit Crab Reactions to a Shell on a Beach
| Level of shell vibration | Percentage of crabs that tried to flip the shell over |
|---|---|
| None | 70% |
| Gentle vibration | 19% |
| Strong vibration |
Pacific hermit crabs live in shells that they either find empty or take from another hermit crab. Biologists Louise Roberts and Mark Laidre noticed that hermit crabs sometimes vibrate their shells and wondered if they do this to scare away other crabs. The researchers put a shell on a beach and set it up to remain still, gently vibrate, or strongly vibrate when another hermit crab approached it. They recorded how many of those crabs tried to flip the shell over, which is the first step in trying to grab a shell from another crab.