Document Type
Poster Session
Department
Biological Sciences
Faculty Mentor
Christine Maher, PhD
Keywords
Ibuprofen, red claw crab, pharmaceutical pollution, fear response
Abstract
Pharmaceutical pollution is a growing environmental issue. Chemicals engineered to affect humans persist in the water system and may have unintended effects on animal behavior. Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory drug shown to reduce predator avoidance in fish. I chose to examine the effects of ibuprofen on the foraging behavior of red clawed crab (Perisesarma bidens) by measuring time spent in the open. Crabs typically spend most of their time hiding and only expose themselves to danger in order to forage for food. I predicted that crabs treated with the high dose of ibuprofen will spend less time hiding compared to the low dose, and both dosed treatments will spend less time hiding vs the control. I recorded whether the crabs were hidden or exposed over 5-minute intervals for nine days. I found no statistical difference between treatments. The results indicate that ibuprofen had no effect on crab risk-taking behavior.
Open Access?
1
Included in
Animal Sciences Commons, Biology Commons, Marine Biology Commons
Effects of ibuprofen on duration of fear responses in red claw crabs
Pharmaceutical pollution is a growing environmental issue. Chemicals engineered to affect humans persist in the water system and may have unintended effects on animal behavior. Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory drug shown to reduce predator avoidance in fish. I chose to examine the effects of ibuprofen on the foraging behavior of red clawed crab (Perisesarma bidens) by measuring time spent in the open. Crabs typically spend most of their time hiding and only expose themselves to danger in order to forage for food. I predicted that crabs treated with the high dose of ibuprofen will spend less time hiding compared to the low dose, and both dosed treatments will spend less time hiding vs the control. I recorded whether the crabs were hidden or exposed over 5-minute intervals for nine days. I found no statistical difference between treatments. The results indicate that ibuprofen had no effect on crab risk-taking behavior.
