| Title | Tools are Not Restricted to Great Apes and Hominids | |
| Date | Sunday November 27 2016, @06:20PM | |
| Author | n1 | |
| Topic | ||
| 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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