I am not a big fan of sea food. There is just something about it I don't like. I truly believe that people's taste buds are different and in some cases quite different. For example I am one of the few people that do not like shrimp. To me, shrimp has no flavor. I see people going crazy over this food everywhere I go. There used to be a restaurant near me that put out huge trays of the stuff and you could eat it until you burst. I like cocktail sauce though and have always felt that it was the sauce that people really liked and didn't realize it wasn't the shrimp, but I guess that I am wrong. Fish itself never moved me and even lobster, that supposed most tasty of sea foods, reminded me of a big bug. After much prodding by my wife I decided to go with her to a Red Lobster restaurant. This was before they served steak. I saw something on the menu that I didn't recognize so I asked the waitress what it was. The fish was langostino. I was told that they were like small lobsters. I took a deep breath and ordered them.

When my langostino dinner came I almost choked. They were small alright. It looked like I had a bunch of bugs as a main course. Oh I tried so hard to eat one but I couldn't even choke it down. My stomach was upset for several days after. I didn't really begin this article to tell about my sea food eating habits or non eating habits as they are, but to discuss the brain power of crustaceans.

Lately science seems to be finding out that many living things are much smarter than first thought. Not only are they much smarter, but many of them possess facilities that we humans don't have. There are also many different varieties of animal life, fish life and insect life, but there is only one type of man. Doesn't this seem strange? Lets take snakes for example. There must be hundreds or even thousands of different types of this animal but they are all snakes. This seems to be how nature works, but what happened in the case of we humans? Maybe humans are not native to the Earth, wouldn't that be something?

Lobster
Photo Source: Clipart.com

Back to crustaceans. Australian scientists have been studying them quite intensely. Actually they are studying the rock lobster which is really a crayfish. If one were to examine the brain of a crayfish, he or she would find that it is not particularly large for it's body. People have the idea that these creatures are pretty dim witted and not even that aware of their surroundings. Evidence is beginning to show that this may be far from the truth. It turns out the crayfish have a very sensitive sense of touch. This sense of touch serves them well in the murky depths that they live in. They use their antenna to feel their way along the bottom. It seems that they are far better adapted to "see" their surroundings than we would be if we were at the bottom of the ocean or a river in murky surroundings using our eyes to see. We would be almost blind.

So how smart are these crayfish? Scientists tested them in a tank in which they put different types of materials. They seemed to avoid any material that they thought might be harmful, like sandpaper and with other types of material acted accordingly. But it doesn't end here, scientists now think that the crayfish can detect vibrations and can get a sophisticated analyses of an area before they even move into it. It also seems that they have good memories and can remember what they encountered in the past in an area. Memory is one area where science if finding out that animals of all kinds retain much more memory than ever thought.

Lobsters are fighters. They are constantly fighting over everything. They fight over shelter and they fight just to show their dominance. Every community of lobsters has an alpha male. He is the king lobster and you don't mess with him. This alpha male lobster goes into the other lobster's shelters and kicks them out every day. He does this to show he is the big boss. Females are attracted to alpha males and this might be the reason for his actions. Here is a strange fact for you, the lobster community seems to know where each other lives. The alpha male is so abusive that the female has to try and calm him down so he will have sex with her. He is really more interested in attacking other lobsters. The female lobster squirts urine into the alpha lobster's shelter from under her eyes and this urine is laced with pheromones and this puts him into a more relaxed state, making him more receptive to her advances. This may take a couple of visits to the alpha lobster's shelter but eventually she will push her way in and he will let her.

The male and female lobster bond for about 10 days and then another female does the same thing. All the females in the neighborhood will eventually bond with the alpha male. In this community you had better be the alpha male.