Data from: Social attraction to a predatory black hole: A natural ecological trap for lobsters

This dataset supports an investigation of an unusual natural ecological
trap whereby social juvenile Caribbean spiny lobsters (Panulirus argus)
are drawn to solution hole dens by the scent of larger conspecifics
dwelling there, but where predatory red grouper (Epinephelus morio) also
lurk. Although lobsters are sensitive to odors from food, healthy and
diseased conspecifics, and other predators such as octopus, our
experiments revealed that lobsters cannot detect the scent of groupers. As
a consequence, the mortality of small juvenile lobsters was 30% higher
near solution holes occupied by grouper, as compared to larger lobsters
that are invulnerable to the gape-limited grouper predator. By preying on
small lobsters, grouper negatively skewed lobster size distributions up to
16m away from the solution hole liar that they patrol. Our results provide
one of the clearest examples of a natural ecological trap, in which the
normally advantageous social cue of large conspecifics lures young
lobsters to what is a predatory death trap.