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posted by n1 on Sunday November 27 2016, @06:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-let-them-in-the-tool-shed dept.

We have all seen videos of apes using sticks to dislodge ants or other treats, but these skills are not restricted to our closest relatives.

Some species of birds like crows uses tradition to transmit their skills to their offspring, other like the cockatoo can improvise with what they have to shape a stick out of different materials and get a delicious peanut. [YouTube video]

Tool manufacture was once regarded a defining feature of mankind, but it is now known that a variety of animal species use and make their own tools. In nature, some of the most striking cases of tool-related behaviour are seen not just among close relatives of Homo sapiens, such as chimps and other primates, but among birds including crows, vultures and Galapagos finches. Researchers from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna and the University of Oxford have shown that Goffin’s cockatoos can make and use elongated tools of appropriate shape and length out of different materials, suggesting that the birds can anticipate how the tools will be used. The study was published in the journal Biology Letters.

Source: University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna


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  • (Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday November 28 2016, @12:55AM

    by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Monday November 28 2016, @12:55AM (#433849)

    Birds pretty much have to use tools since they have to manipulate just about everything with their beak.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by TheLink on Monday November 28 2016, @07:11AM

    by TheLink (332) on Monday November 28 2016, @07:11AM (#433934) Journal

    It should be no surprise that many animals use tools. Many of them are not born automatically knowing how to use their limbs properly. Just look at kittens learning to walk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4ubKrHwbFg [youtube.com]
    Or some birds learning to fly. There really isn't a huge difference between learning to use your limbs and feathers/claws stuck to them and learning to use a tool that's held by your limbs. See also: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/10/hints-tool-use-culture-seen-bumble-bees [sciencemag.org]

    Learning to _make_ suitable tools for a particular purpose is a different matter (requires a bit more imagination and prediction) and that's what this bird is doing.

    But it's not really a surprise given what we know.

    What I find interesting is that many birds can be so smart and yet have relatively small brains (e.g. not bigger than a large walnut). Should make you wonder why other animals need such big brains despite being so stupid (e.g. sheep, humans, etc ). Some of the size requirements might be due to "interface" costs. I've been suspecting the original reason brains evolved was not to solve the problem of thinking. And that many single celled creatures already can think (most aren't geniuses because there's no benefit to being a genius as a single cell[1]). Brains were to solve the problem of controlling and interfacing with a multicellular body. If you have one single cell controlling the entire body, when it dies the whole body is wasted.

    [1] Then again perhaps there are such "raw" geniuses, it's just that they can't develop given their physical limitations (sensory limits etc). After all how smart do you think Stephen Hawking would be if he was born stuck with all the external limitations of a single celled creature? No hands, no voice, no eyes, no ears etc.

    • (Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday November 28 2016, @08:52AM

      by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Monday November 28 2016, @08:52AM (#433953)

      Getting a little of topic, but I think thought relies on struggle/problem solving, much like building muscle relies on struggle, tearing your existing muscle.