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Owner Advantage in the fiddler crab, Uca mjoebergi. Are owners more motivated than floaters in response to high quality territories?

Created 23/06/2025

Updated 23/06/2025

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Resource owners generally win contests against intruders, a phenomenon referred to as the 'Owner Advantage' (OA). Uca mjoebergi is a typical fiddler crab that is highly sociable, territorial and lives in mixed sex colonies on intertidal mudflats. Burrows are used in territory defence, for mating, and as refuge from predators and environmental stresses. Fights are common between owners and floating males who battle for ownership of the territory and burrow. Experiments were conducted from 28th Sept - 30 Dec 2006 at the lower reaches of Ludmilla Creek within East Point Reserve, 5km North of Darwin, NT. Previous experiments have revealed that owners win more contests than floaters because they are more motivated. This experiment was designed to test if owners are more motivated than floaters in response to high quality territories. The results revealed that owners won more contests in 'high quality' territories than in 'natural' territories but this difference was not significant. Although owners win more contests in 'High quality' territories, the lack of significance may indicate only a small asymmetry between owners and floaters. It is possible that owners and floaters have similar abilities to perceive the food availability and be similar in motivational level.

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Field Value
Title Owner Advantage in the fiddler crab, Uca mjoebergi. Are owners more motivated than floaters in response to high quality territories?
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/2d7c0490-772f-4cfb-8981-43418f3098ba
Contact Point
Australian Ocean Data Network
sfayed@utas.edu.au
Reference Period 28/09/2006 - 30/12/2006
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        130.5,
        -13.0
      ],
      [
        131.0,
        -13.0
      ],
      [
        131.0,
        -12.0
      ],
      [
        130.5,
        -12.0
      ],
      [
        130.5,
        -13.0
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Australian Oceans Data Network

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Australian Oceans Data Network "Owner Advantage in the fiddler crab, Uca mjoebergi. Are owners more motivated than floaters in response to high quality territories?". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://catalogue.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/owner-advantage-in-the-fiddler-crab-uca-mjoebergi-are-owners-more-motivated-than-floaters-in-re1