Which Way Little Crab?

Overview

Objectives/Goals The purpose of my project was to find out if hermit crabs used the Earth's magnetic field to navigate. I hypothesized that hermit crabs navigated using the Earth's magnetic field based on observations noted in my previous science project. Methods/Materials To determine if hermit crabs navigated using the Earth's magnetic field, I set up 2 environments. Environment 1 was a control that used the Earth's natural magnetic field. Environment 2 had Neodymium magnets strapped to the bottom aligned in such a way, as to create a new magnetic field where a false East is actually true South and so on. For each experiment, the hermit crab was placed in the center of a large circular bucket facing true North every test. The first wall they touched was the direction recorded. The time they took was also recorded as an observation. I ran 4 trials in Environment I and 5 trials in Environment II using 5 Coenobita Clypeatus hermit crabs. Results The hermit crabs went the direction of East, even with a different magnetic field, showing that evidence they navigate using the Earth's magnetic field. When testing hermit crabs in the control environment they predominantly went East 68% of the time or 13 tests out of 19 total. When being tested in Environment 2 the hermit crabs went predominantly false East (true South) the most, 44% of the time or 11 tests out of 25 total. Conclusions/Discussion My results show conclusive evidence that hermit crabs do navigate using the Earth's magnetic field. In addition they have a tendency to go East. This data suggests that the hermit crabs are migrating somewhere, such as a breeding ground. This knowledge could be used to help and protect the species' survival.

Competition history

• CSEF 2012 Zoology · Entry J2214

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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