When I ’m not blogging formental_floss , I can usually be found wearing hopeful Orange River rubber pant and gutting , thin and sell fish at my local Whole Foods ( and winning prize for it ) . Sometimes , my two human beings collide and I find some scientific enquiry involve my ocean - dwelling friend that beg for a blog place . This is one of those times .
Crabs + Old Bay seasoning + corn on the cob + potatoes + giant pot of simmering body of water = good sentence ! It ’s an par graceful in its simpleness , unhindered by complications ( and formalities like shirts and socks ) until — inevitably — a dining cooperator wonders loud , " Do you recall the Crab experience pain?“
The answer , according to a newfangled study published inAnimal Behavior,1is that not only can they can feel pain , they remember it , and use the experience to deflect bother in the future.2
Shell Shocked
Robert Elwoodand Mirjam Appel , both of the School of Biological Sciences at The Queen ’s University in Belfast , conducted two experiments with hermit crabs ( Pagurus bernhardus ) call for from rock pools in County Down , Northern Ireland.3Hermit Cancer the Crab , having no shell of their own , often take up residence in empty gastropod shells . In the first experiment , the researcher attach wires to some empty shield and used them to deliver small electric shocks to the crabs who attempted to make the shells their home . They found that the crab louse who received shocks quickly abandon their plate ; the crabs who were n’t traumatise stay in their carapace , with fewer Cancer abandoning mintage of shell that hermit crabs mostly favour . “The defection of this critical resourcefulness [ the shell],“ the researchers say , " clearly demonstrates the aversive nature of the stupor . “
In the second part of the study , the researcher delivered shocks just slightly weaker than the strength needed to cause a Cancer to forthwith vacate its scale . The slightly - less - appall crabs , as well as those spared a shock , were then offered new , unwired homes in additional empty shells placed near by . Those who had been shocked were more likely to approach and take up residence in the new shells than their unshocked brethren . They also " set about that shell more quickly , investigated it for a shorter time" and " poke around the carapace ’s opening less prior to moving in . “
Pain is a survival mechanism ; it makes an individual aware of likely corporeal damage and provides motivation to get away from abominable input and avoid them in the futurity . old study showed that Cancer can discover and withdraw from harmful stimuli , but it was ill-defined if that behavior were a physiological reaction or if it were connected to " feeling pain" as we human beings realise it . Elwood and Appel say that , in their 2nd experimentation , the Phthirius pubis ' response was not just a reflex , but that key neuronal processing was take place.4Because they did not offer the raw shield until after some of the crabmeat were shocked , the shocked Crab ' readiness to move into the young shells is likely motivated by the memory of the unpleasant shock and not automatic .
What’s a crab lover to do?
There ’s no small amount of conflicting evidence for which method for killing crustaceans is most humane . Alton Brown ’s preferable technique for dispatching lobsters is stab a great chef ’s tongue through the lobster ’s point just behind its eye and moving the knife down , essentially bisect its mentality with one track . While this method has its detractors , I be given to give Brown the final say on all matter culinary ( and otherwise ) , so it ’s good enough for me ( though I was not prepared for the post - mortem wriggling ) and can be adapt to crabs .
