HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi all!

I've been a crab owner all of a week and I'm finding them to be incredibly fun and intriguing creatures the more I read about them! I'm currently finishing a PhD in Biological Anthropology which means I often find myself reading/talking about animal behavior and intelligence - think forms of language, modifying their environment, tool use, etc., so I've been wondering about behaviors that hermit crabs might exhibit that would be considered signs of 'intelligence'. I would love to hear your anecdotes!

Mine's still settling in underground at the moment (my first post explains my story in the 'Food & Water' section) so hopefully I'll have observations of my own soon enough.

Tonight one of mine was hanging upside down from the cross beam in my tank. I have custom glass lids and he couldn't get anything in that gap. He was smart to figure out how to get there.

Ha ha, reading some of the great escape stories on these forums, we definitely can check 'problem solving abilities'!

One of my PPs climbed across the screen tank lid upside down to the corner nearest the door to the bathroom (crabitat location) and meticulously cut his way through the tough screen with his big claw. He'd made a sizable hole by the time I noticed it!

Ark noticed me wiggling my fingers and started to mimic the diractions they were going with his feelers, then moved his legs around as a form of wave, I think? It was pretty adorable! And Ender used Ark as a stepping stool to push herself up onto the climber ( She's missing a leg, petstore incident since I haven't had them more than a week ) until she fell onto her back and pulled herself back up. She had stepped right onto his head too, and he didn't seem to care~