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Animal Macgyvers: Tool use in the animal kingdom
The use of tools marks a significant development in evolution and the establishment of civilization. Humans are believed to have already had wooden tools around 4 million years ago, according to a 2009 article by Charles Choi for Live Science. What is often overlooked is that chimpanzees are humans’ closest living relatives, and they, too, knew how to create spear-like tools millions of years ago. In fact, scientists believe chimpanzees and monkeys have since entered the Stone Age.
Now, scientists also know that tool use is a behavior exhibited by numerous animals, from monkeys to crows. Here are a few of the instances humans have recorded.
Last August, a Colombian white-faced capuchin
was caught on camera using a stone to break glass. The monkey was attempting to shatter the tempered glass surrounding his enclosure at the Zhenzhou Zoo in Henan, China.
The viral video of the incident shows the monkey hitting the glass, much to visitors’ amusement. They stop laughing when the monkey’s second strike successfully breaks the panel. The monkey then runs away from the glass unharmed, and no one is injured, reported Stephanie Valera in a 2019 article for Geek.com.
Primates are known to use plant tools, but evidence of their using stone tools is quite rare. Humans developed stone tools 2 to 3 million years ago. Scientists believe chimpanzees weren’t that far behind, using stone tools at least 4,300 years ago, according to a 2015 article by Colin Barras for BBC Earth.
Researchers recently published findings on the ability of Atlantic puffins
to scratch themselves with sticks. They observed two different puffins exhibiting the behavior, despite one being in Wales and the other being on an island in Iceland. This means that the behavior isn’t limited to just one group.
The Icelandic puffin was recorded picking up a stick using its beak and scratching the under part of his chest. It was reportedly the first time wild seabirds had been seen using tools. According to the study, the researchers are certain the puffins weren’t using the sticks to build nests because puffins prefer soft items such as feathers for nestmaking, reported Andrew in a 2020 article for CTV News.
Crows are intelligent creatures, with one species quite well known for turning twigs into spears. Researchers at the University of Auckland figured out that New Caledonian crows
can plan three moves ahead while using tools to get food.
They learned this by putting the crows through a four-part experimental puzzle. Many of the crows figured out how to solve it in one go, after exploring each part. This suggests that crows can imagine what’s necessary to accomplish complex tasks, according to a 2019 article by Douglas Main for National Geographic.