Tuesday, February 22, 2011

crawdad communication

I had to update you all on the crawdad situation. When I first put her in the tank, each of the 200+ baby crawdads let go of their mother and began swimming around. Nothing so strange about that, in fact it seems pretty normal right? Well, here comes the strange part.....last night when I checked on her all of the babies were once again in a ball under her tail being carried by her. How did they know to come back to their mother? Is there some form of communication taking place, wherein the mother "tells" her little ones to huddle up? Does this type of behavior take place outside in their natural setting, or is this behavior a protective instinct brought on by captivity? Any opinions?
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11 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 22, 2011 at 8:41 PM

    fascinating behavior.. sounds like some sort of protective instinct going on. Whatever it is, it must be very cool to watch :)
    (hope this posts this time, I have a problem with blogger blogs for some odd reason)

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  2. Shelly CoxFebruary 22, 2011 at 11:02 PM

    I am so glad you were able to get blogger comment to work this time. I am completely fascinated by this crawdad and her babies. I hope to keep her for awhile longer and document their behavior. I am learning all I can for an upcoming "Discover Family" event we are hosting at our office in June. The theme of the program is crawdads. We plan to catch a bunch of crawdads and have a big crawdad boil and let the public sample them

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  3. Out on the prairieFebruary 23, 2011 at 10:15 AM

    MMMM i love to sample that fare.I used to set a few traps for them, but they have become hard to find with silt and chemicals in their way.

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  4. biobabblerFebruary 23, 2011 at 10:32 AM

    I expect it's natural behavior, why not? Yes, but how they communicate, who knows. Maybe huddling for warmth. Here's a nice video that doesn't answer your question, but shows lobster females doing their thing--stops before we see (what I expect) babies under her tail, but shows eggs there and then TINY BABIES who can't even swim properly--so cute! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6nhOChpMck

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  5. Roasted GarliciousFebruary 23, 2011 at 2:19 PM

    how fascinating to watch!! i'm wondering if the trigger for returning to mom is the sun going down or even a temperature drop...
    here the crawdads are known as crayfish.. when i was looking to buy the piece of property i'm presently on, a heron flew by and dropped a crayfish right in front of me, i threw it back in the creek and it swam away... i figured that was my sign to be here ;)

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  6. Shelly CoxFebruary 23, 2011 at 5:29 PM

    Pollution is a definite concern with these critters. Have to be very careful where we remove them from before consuming them. It is unfortunate that you are seeing a decrease in their numbers Steve, they are such wonderful creatures.

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  7. Shelly CoxFebruary 23, 2011 at 5:32 PM

    Bio, thank you for sharing the link, I think I may post it to the post to share, it is awfully cute. I wonder if any studies have ever been done about crawdad communication? This just intrigues me.

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  8. Shelly CoxFebruary 23, 2011 at 5:35 PM

    Garlic, thank you for sharing your heron/crayfish story and you are so right....that HAD to be sign you belonged there.

    I am not sure what is going on with this mom and her babies, but I would love to figure it out. They are in a climate controlled environment now, so not sure if it is a night time temperature that triggers this behavior, or if it is some sort of protective instinct on the mothers part. I can barely get two kids to mind me when I tell them to do something, how does she get 200 to huddle up and return to her?

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  9. Roasted GarliciousFebruary 24, 2011 at 10:49 AM

    LOL MObugs... it's chilly.. what child doesn't love to be cuddled ;) am loving your pics of them and hope to see more.. hint hint :D

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  10. MarkMay 7, 2011 at 2:43 PM

    I think crawdads traditionally communicate by sub-acoustic vibrations in the water, but most are on twitter these days!

    Yes, I'm being silly, but I am looking forward to an update. This is the most recent post on the "crawdad from the ice" unless I am mistaken.

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  11. Shelly CoxMay 7, 2011 at 3:09 PM

    LOL, cute, someone needs to draw a cartoon with a crawdad twittering....or tweeting or whatever they call it. I do good to navigate around Facebook, I haven't begun to try twitter yet. The baby crawdads, unfortunately did not make it. I apparently was not providing what they needed adequately enough. I still have the mom, and she is eating and thriving well. I am considering letting her go though, I feel sorry for her.

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