Female crabs 'exchange sex for protection'

News Type: Event — Seeded on Sun Nov 8, 2009 4:07 AM EST

Article Source: abc.net.au

world-news, australia, sex, au-news, biology, wildlife, crabs, fiddle-crabs

Female fiddler crabs have sex with their male neighbours in exchange for protection against wandering male intruders, say Australian researchers.

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Red Wolf

But while males have an extremely large claw that can be used as a weapon, female crabs have just two small feeding claws.

So how do female crabs defend their territory?

To answer this question Professor Backwell and colleagues built on previous work that showed that under certain circumstances, males will help protect a neighbouring male from an intruder.

Such "defensive coalitions" are rare in the animal kingdom and have so far only been demonstrated in two species of fiddler crab and a type of bird called a rock pipit.

Protecting a neighbour can be risky, leading to injury, loss of a claw and even death, and a male also risks having their own unattended burrow invaded while off protecting their neighbour.

But, says team member and behavioural ecologist, Professor Michael Jennions, it is a case of better the enemy you know.

He says once territory boundaries have been established with one neighbour, it makes sense to avoid the chance of getting a larger, stronger and more troublesome neighbour.

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2 votes

#1 - Sun Nov 8, 2009 4:08 AM EST

{"commentId":10555258,"authorDomain":"eric24"}

Simplistic Reality

What hookers! hahaha.

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#2 - Sun Nov 8, 2009 6:19 AM EST

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Female crabs 'exchange sex for protection'

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