to the water line in droves. However, some do not travel to the water line as males remain to forage/ defend the burrows and females remain to select potential mates or to prepare their burrows for eggs. As high tide returns, the crabs that traveled to the water line return to the high intertidal zone and either excavate burrows or improve on existing burrows. Distribution Both male and female painted ghost crabs dig burrows. The burrows act as important protection for the painted ghost crab, allowing them to avoid predators, rapid environmental changes, and other territorial crabs of the same species. The creation of the burrows includes characteristic behaviors and utilize both wet and dry sediment. O. gaudichaudii have been observed disposing of unwanted or unused sediments when building burrows with a kick, dump, or tamp behavior. Sand dug from the burrows are deposited by kicking or dumping while the deposited sand is manipulated by tamping. Tamping involves applying pressure to the sand using the ambulatory legs and all residents of tamped burrows are males. The majority of females are found in dumped burrows, but some can be found inhabiting kicked burrows. The varying sand disposal behaviors create differing burrow patterns and characteristics. Tamped sand is the most abundant surrounding painted crab burrows, and individuals within tamped burrows are larger than kicked and dumped. Furthermore, the environmental conditions and tidal patterns greatly influence the morphology and distribution of burrows. The abundance and amount of tamped burrows varies with the tidal and lunar cycle, as the majority of burrows during a full moon are tamped. It is possible tamped burrows act as a visual courtship behavior, providing females a guide to potential mates and assisting with the creation/reach of acoustic courtship signals. While there is a small percentage within populations in which more than one crab inhabits a borrow, the majority are inhabited by one crab, suggesting a territorial behavior in relation to burrows. The burrowing of O. gaudichaudii along sandy beaches creates fringe areas in which the abundance of burrows and proximity to one another changes between fringes. Waves and swash climates are one of the main restrictors to the locations of permanent burrows, as the majority are found above the drift line. Other factors that influence the distribution of burrows include drift line height/width and the slope of dry and retention zones along the sand. Conservation Ghost crabs within