Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Yamagata University, Yamagata, 990-8560, Japan.
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2018 Dec;204(12):999-1005. doi: 10.1007/s00359-018-1298-5. Epub 2018 Oct 23.
Feeding is important to supply the immediate energy needs of animals and starved animals must expend energy in attempting to acquire foods irrespective of the danger of predation risk. Crayfish escape from attack of predators by tailflipping and in response to rostral stimuli crayfish show backward escape swimming following an initial rapid flexion of the abdomen. Since the tailflip is an energetically costly behaviour, the occurrence of a tailflip diminishes if a stimulus is repeatedly applied through habituation. In this study, we have compared the process of this habituation between fed and starved crayfish. We found that in starved animals habituation was enhanced compared to fed animals. The presence of food in the experimental tanks further enhanced habituation of starved animals. Starved crayfish thus showed trade-offs between energy saving and predation risk.
摄食对于满足动物的即时能量需求非常重要，而饥饿的动物必须消耗能量来寻找食物，而不顾捕食风险的危险。小龙虾通过甩尾来逃避捕食者的攻击，而当受到头部刺激时，小龙虾会在腹部快速弯曲后向后逃离游泳。由于甩尾是一种耗能的行为，如果通过习惯化反复施加刺激，甩尾的发生频率会降低。在这项研究中，我们比较了饥饿和摄食小龙虾之间的这种习惯化过程。我们发现，饥饿的动物比摄食的动物更容易习惯化。实验水箱中存在食物进一步增强了饥饿动物的习惯化。因此，饥饿的小龙虾在节约能量和避免被捕食风险之间做出了权衡。
