Dr. Adam L. Crane, PhD
Assistant Professor of Biology:
School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
University of Arkansas at Monticello
Director: Turner Neal Museum of Natural History
Email: crane@uamont.edu
Embedded Files
I am an animal ecologist teaching zoology, ichthyology, herpetology, aquatic biology, and behavior at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. I am a former member of the Ferrari lab (aquatic predation and environmental change), the Brown lab (aquatic chemical and behavioral ecology), the Chivers lab (behavioral and cognitive ecology), the Mathis lab (behavioral ecology), the Greene lab (snake ecology), and the Plummer lab (herpetology).
*Land acknowledgment: I currently work and live on the ancestral homeland of the Quapaw (or Arkansas) people, meaning the ‘downstream’ people in reference to the Mississippi River. They were the original caretakers of this land, living here for hundreds of years before being forced to leave in what is now known as the ‘Quapaw Trail of Tears’.
Research interests:
I have broad interests in animal ecology, evolution, and conservation, with my research focusing on the cognitive ecology of predation risk in aquatic systems. Some of my recent work has targeted (1) fear acquisition and attenuation, (2) uncertainty and memory following environmental change, and (3) the vulnerability of prey and their behavioral defenses against invasive predators.
frightened fathead minnows
Publications:
*Asterisks indicate most significant contributions
2025
75- Crane AL†, Feyten LEA, Brusseau AJP, Dumaresq-Synnott F, Ramnarine IW, Ferrari MCO, Brown GE (accepted). Anxiolytic effects of diazepam in Trinidadian guppies exposed to chemical cues indicating predation risk. Behavioural Pharmacology.
74- Brusseau AJP, Dumaresq Synnott F, Crane AL, Brown GE. Effects of recreational disturbance history on Trinidadian guppies' response to chemical predation cues. Environmental Biology of Fishes. 108: 1151-1162. link
73- Dumaresq Synnott F, Brusseau AJP, Crane AL, Brown GE. Response of juvenile male and female guppies to acute predation cues: testing the distracted male hypothesis. Behaviour. 162: 101-114. link
72- Achthymichuk GH, Crane AL, Wrynn TE, Ferrari MCO (in press). Exploring the potency and replenishment of released disturbance cues in wood frog tadpoles. Animal Behaviour. 219: 123034. link
71- Brusseau A, Feyten LEA, Crane AL, Ramnarine I, Ferrari MCO, Brown GE. Antipredator decisions of male Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) depend on social cues from females. Current Zoology. 71: 205-211. link
Trinidadian guppy field arena
Disturbance site
2024
70- Thapa H, Salahinajad A, Crane AL, Ghobisabvhi A, Ferrari MCO. Background predation risk induces anxiety-like behaviour and predator neophobia in zebrafish. Animal Cognition. 27: 69. link
69- Wickramasingha PD, Morrissey CA, Phillips ID, Crane AL, Ferrari MCO, Chivers DP. Sub-lethal effects of the insecticide, Imidacloprid, on the responses of damselfly larvae to chemosensory cues indicating predation risk. Chemosphere. 356: 141926. link
68- Thapa H, Crane AL, Achtymichuk GH, Sadat M, Ferrari MCO. Predator metamorphosis and its consequence for prey risk assessment: evidence of a predator identity reset. Behavioral Ecology. 35: arae014. link
67- Wickramasingha PD, Morrissey CA, Phillips ID, Crane AL, Ferrari MCO, Chivers DP. Exposure to the insecticide, imidacloprid, impairs predator-recognition learning in damselfly larvae. Environmental Pollution. 342: 123085. link
*66- Crane AL, Feyten LEA, Preagola AA, Ferrari MCO, Brown GE. Uncertainty about predation risk: a conceptual review. Biological Reviews. 99: 238-252. link
65- Brusseau AJP, Feyten LEA, Crane AL, Brown GE. Exploring the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on predator inspection activity in Trinidadian guppies. Current Zoology. 70: 109-111. link
spectrum of novelty
2023
64- Brusseau AJP, Groves V, Feyten LEA, Felismino MEL, Truong DCV, Crane AL, Ramnarine IW, Brown GE. Sex and background risk influence responses to acute predation risk in Trinidadian guppies. Behavioral Ecology. 34: 898-906. link
*63- Crane AL, Achtymichuk GH, Rivera-Hernandez IEA, Preagola AA, Thapa H, Ferrari MCO. Uncertainty about old information results in differential predator memory in tadpoles. Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences. 290: 20230746. link
62- Crane AL, Bryshun R, McCormack M, Achtymichuk GH, Rivera-Hernandez IAE, Ferrari MCO. Evidence for the Predator Attraction Hypothesis in an amphibian predator-prey system. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 36: 57-66. link
2022
61- Crane AL, Demers EE, Feyten IEA, Ramnarine IW, Brown GE. Exploratory decisions by Trinidadian guppies when uncertain about predation risk. Animal Cognition. 25: 581-587. link
60- Rivera-Hernández IAE, Crane AL, Pollock MS, Ferrari MCO. Disturbance cues function as a background risk cue but not an associative learning cue in tadpoles. Animal Cognition. 25: 881-889. link
*59- Crane AL, Bairos-Novak KR, Goldman JA, Brown GE. Chemical disturbance cues in aquatic systems: a review and prospectus. Ecological Monographs. 92: e01487. link
58- Brown GE, Crane AL, Demers EE, Chivers DP, Ferrari MCO. Uncertain foraging opportunities and predation risk exert additive effects on the induced neophobia in cichlids. Animal Behaviour. 186: 21-28. link
57- Achtymichuk GH, Stephens H, Simko OM, Crane AL, Ferrari MCO. The choice of euthanasia techniques can affect experimental results in aquatic behavioural studies. Animal Behaviour. 185: 1-8. link
56- Goldman JA, Crane AL, Feyten LEA, Collins E, Brown GE. Disturbance cue communication is shaped by emitter diet and receiver background risk in Trinidadian guppies. Current Zoology 66: 433-440. link
Trinidadian guppy field trial
2021
55- Feyten LEA, Crane AL, Brown GE. Predation risk shapes the use of conflicting personal risk and social safety information in guppies. Behavioral Ecology. 32: 1296-1305. link
54- Crane AL, Meuthen D, Thapa H, Ferrari MCO, Brown GE. Early-life and parental predation risk shape how adult risk induces fear in minnows. Animal Cognition 24: 471-481. link
53- Attaran A, Salahinejad A, Naderi M, Crane AL, Chivers DP, Niyogi S. Transgenerational effects of selenomethionine on behaviour, social cognition, and the expression of genes in the serotonergic pathway in zebrafish. Environmental Pollution 286: 117289. link
laboratory trials
2020
52- Crane AL, Feyten LEA, Ramnarine IW, Brown GE. High-risk environments promote disturbance cue signalling in Trinidadian guppies. Oecologia 193: 89-95. link
51- Bairos-Novak KB, Crane AL, Achtymichuk GH, Wrynn TE, Simko OM, Rivera-Hernández IAE, Hsin J, Chivers DP, Ferrari MCO. Forget the audience: Tadpoles release similar disturbance cues regardless of kinship or familiarity of nearby conspecifics. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 74: 147. link
50- Lucon-Xiccato T, Crane AL, Ferrari MCO, Chivers DP. Exposure to predation risk reduces lateralization in fathead minnows. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology 74: 260-265. link
*49- Crane AL, Feyten LEA, Ramnarine IW, Brown GE. The propensity for re-triggered fear in a prey fish. Scientific Reports 10: 9253. link
48- Crane AL, Feyten LEA, Ramnarine IW, Brown GE. Temporally-variable predation risk and fear retention in Trinidadian guppies. Behavioral Ecology 31: 1084-1090. link
47- Attaran A, Salahinejad A, Naderi M, Crane AL, Niyogi S, Chivers DP. Effects of chronic exposure to selenomethionine on social learning outcomes in zebrafish (Danio rerio): serotonergic dysregulation and oxidative stress in the brain. Chemosphere 247: 125898. link
46- Crane AL, Ferrari MCO, Rivera-Hernandez IAE, Brown GE. Microhabitat complexity influences fear acquisition in fathead minnows. Behavioral Ecology 31: 261-266. link
*45- Crane AL, Brown GE, Chivers DP, Ferrari MCO. An ecological framework of neophobia: from cells to organisms to populations. Biological Reviews 95: 218-231. link
guppies in field arena
disturbance cues
2019
44- Crane AL, Bairos-Novak KR, Jefferson DM, Chivers DP, Ferrari MCO. Survival, behaviour, and morphology of larval wood frogs, Lithobates sylvaticus, under threat from an exotic crayfish predator, Orconectes virilis. Aquatic Ecology 53: 383-392. link
43- Bairos-Novak KR, Crane AL, Chivers DP, Ferrari MCO. Better the devil you know? How familiarity and kinship affect prey responses to chemical disturbance cues. Behavioral Ecology 30: 446-454. link
42- Attaran A, Salahinejad A, Crane AL, Niyogi S, Chivers DP. Chronic exposure to dietary selenomethionine dysregulates the genes involved in serotonergic neurotransmission and alters social and antipredator behaviours in zebrafish (Danio rerio). Environmental Pollution 246: 837-844. link
41- Crane AL, Chivers DP, Ferrari MCO. Time-dependent latent inhibition of predator-recognition learning. Biology Letters 15: 20190183. link
wood frog tadpole
pond mesocosms
2018
40- Johnson TM, Crane AL. Learning profitable habitat types by juvenile crayfish. Behavioural Processes 148: 31-33. link
*39- Crane AL, Bairos-Novak KR, Sacco LH, Ferrari MCO. The socially mediated recovery of a fearful fish paired with periodically replaced calm models. Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences 285: 20180739. link
38- Hasan MR, Crane AL, Poulin NP, Ferrari MCO, Chivers DP. Altered acoustic environments influence boldness in minnows. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 209: 109-113. link
37- Crane AL, Helton EJ, Ferrari MCO, Mathis A. Learning to find food: evidence for embryonic sensitization and juvenile social learning in a salamander. Animal Behaviour 142: 199-206. link
36- Mitchell MD, Crane AL, Bairos-Novak KR, Chivers DP, Ferrari MCO. Olfactory cues of habitats facilitate learning about landscapes of fear. Behavioral Ecology. 29: 693-700. link
35-Hasan MR, Crane AL, Ferrari MCO, Chivers DP. A cross-modal effect of noise: the disappearance of the alarm reaction of a freshwater fish. Animal Cognition 21: 419-424. link
34- Crane AL, Chivers DP, Ferrari MCO. Embryonic background risk promotes the survival of tadpoles facing surface predators. Plos One 13: e0193939. link
wood frog embryos
predacious diving beetle (tadpole predator)
2017
*33- Crane AL, Ferrari MCO. Learning of safety in a social fish: applications for studying post-traumatic stress in humans. Animal Behaviour 132: 271-279. link
32- Bairos-Novak KB, Mitchell MD, Crane AL, Chivers DP, Ferrari MCO. Trust thy neighbour in times of trouble: predation risk alters how tadpoles release and respond to social cues. Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences 284: 20171465. link
*31- Crane AL, Ferrari MCO. Patterns of predator neophobia: a meta-analytic review. Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences 284: 20170583. link
30- Heuring CA, Heuring WL, Crane AL, Mathis A. Effects of diet quality and stress on interference behaviour in larval ringed salamanders. Amphibia-Reptilia 38, 89-96. link
29- Mathis A, Crane AL. Chemoreception. In: APA Handbook of Comparative Psychology (Call, Burghardt, Pepperberg, Snowdon, Zentall eds). APA Books, Washington D.C., U.S.A. Pp. 69-87.link
*28- Crane AL, Ferrari MCO. Evidence for risk extrapolation in tadpoles. Scientific Reports 7, 43255. link
27- Crane AL, Demuth BS, Ferrari MCO. Experience with predators shapes learning rules in larval amphibians. Behavioral Ecology 28: 312-318. link
2016
26- Kreitals NM, Hobson KA, Hoemsen B, Crane AL, Wishingrad V, Sloychuk J, Pollock MS, Chivers DP, Phillips ID. Turnover of hydrogen isotopes (δ2H) in lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) blood: implications for tracking movements of wild populations. Isotopes in Environmental and Health Studies 2016: 1147440. link
25- Ferrari MCO, Crane AL, Chivers DP. Certainty and the cognitive ecology of generalization of predator recognition. Animal Behaviour 111: 207-211. link
24- Crane AL, Ferrari MCO. Uncertainty in risky environments: a high-risk phenotype interferes with social learning about risk and safety. Animal Behaviour 119: 49-57. link
laboratory behavioral observations
2015
23- Larcher M, Crane AL. Chemoreception of hunger levels alters the following behaviour of a freshwater snail. Behavioural Processes 121: 30-32. link
22- Crane AL, Mathis A. Observation of predation by a lycosid spider on a captive-reared salamander larva (Ambystoma annulatum). Herpetology Notes 8: 455-457. link
21- Mathiron AGE, Crane AL, Ferrari MCO. Individual vs. social learning of predator information in fishes: does group size affect learning efficacy? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 69: 939-949. link
20- Ferrari MCO, Crane AL, Brown GE, Chivers DP. Getting ready for invasions: can background level of risk predict the ability of naïve prey to survive novel predators? Scientific Reports 5: 8309. link
*19- Crane AL, Mathiron AGE, Ferrari MCO. Social learning in a high-risk environment: incomplete disregard for the 'minnow that cried pike' results in culturally-transmitted neophobia. Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences 282: 20150934. link
18- Crane AL, Lampe MJ, Mathis A. Maladaptive behavioural phenotypes in captive-reared rainbow darters (Etheostoma caeruleum, Storer 1845). Journal of Applied Ichthyology 31: 787-792. link
17- Crane AL, Ferrari MCO. Intense interspecific amplexus of wood frogs, Lithobates sylvaticus, on a tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum. Herpetology Notes 8: 295. link
16- Crane AL, Ferrari MCO. Minnows trust conspecifics more than themselves when faced with conflicting information about predation risk. Animal Behaviour 100: 184-190. link
northern pike (minnow predator)
interspecific amplexus
2014
15- Jefferson DM, Ferrari MCO, Mathis A, Hobson KA, Britzke ER, Crane AL, Blaustein AR, Chivers DP. Shifty salamanders: transient trophic polymorphism within natural populations of larval ambystomatid salamanders. Frontiers in Zoology 11: 76. link
ringed salamander
2013
14- Crane AL, Lampe M, Mathis A. Detecting danger from prey-guild members: behavioral and metabolic responses of Ozark zigzag salamanders to alarm secretions from earthworms. Ethology Ecology and Evolution 25: 377-387. link
13- Crane AL, Mathis A. Learning about danger by larval hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis): are antipredator strategies ontogenetically plastic? Amphibia Reptilia 34: 119-124. link
12- Crane AL, Ferrari MCO. Social learning of predator recognition: a review and prospectus. In: Social Learning Theory: Phylogenetic Considerations Across Animal, Plant and Microbial Taxa (Clark ed). Nova Science Publisher NY, USA. Pp. 53-82. link
hatchery propagation
2012
11- Crane AL, McGrane C, Mathis A. Socially facilitated anitpredator behavior by ringed salamanders (Ambystoma annulatum). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 66: 811-817. link
10- Crane AL, McGrane C, Mathis A. Behavioral and physiological responses of Ozark zigzag salamanders to stimuli from an invasive predator—the armadillo. International Journal of Ecology 2012: 1-7. link
salamander metabolic chamber
2011
9- Crane AL, Fritts A, Mathis A, Lisek J, Barnhart C. Do gill parasites influence the foraging and anti-predator behaviour of rainbow darters (Etheostoma caeruleum)? Animal Behaviour 82: 817-823. link
8- Crane AL, Mathis A. Predator-recognition training: a conservation strategy to increase post-release survival of hellbenders in head-starting programs. Zoo Biology 30: 611-622. link
7- Crane AL, Mathis A. Morphological and behavioral changes of salamanders following infection with the Chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis). Reptiles and Amphibians 18: 138-143. link
6- Crane AL, Mathis A. Landmark learning by the Ozark zigzag salamander, Plethodon angusticlavius. Current Zoology 57: 485-490. link
spatial learning trials
2008
1- Crane AL, Greene BD. The effect of reproductive condition on thermoregulation in female Agkistrodon piscivorus near the northwestern range limit. Herpetologica 64: 156-167. link
gravid cottonmouth
field measurement
Saskatchewan ponds
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