Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Levell, Samantha

Keywords

Triops, boldness, personality

Area of Concentration

Animal Wellbeing and Conservation

Abstract

Triops, or tadpole shrimp, are small, freshwater invertebrates. They are the apex predator of their habitat, temporary pools of freshwater. They eat plant matter, worms, mosquito larvae and their own eggs. Their eggs go through anhydrobiosis; meaning they can survive without water for extended periods of time. There have been no previous studies specifically on Triops’ personality. Thus this raises the question if individuals demonstrate different personalities from each other. Boldness trials were conducted on 13 specimens that were on a diet of herbivore pellets and carrots. Each set of trials were repeated 1-11 times depending on how long the individual lived. The trials consisted of an exploration trial which was an open-field test, a novel object trial, where they were introduced to a new type of object, and an emergence from a shelter trial where it was recorded how long it would take for them to leave a shelter. In this study there was little evidence found that individual Triops showed different behaviors and personality types.

Rights

The author has granted New College of Florida the nonexclusive right to archive, make accessible, and distribute for educational purposes this work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The copyright of this work remains with the author.

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