Until 1963, when Jane Goodall's work on wild chimpanzees and their tool use was published, most scientists believed that tool use was a trait unique to humans. Half a century later, we are finally beginning to understand that the line between humans and other animals is quite thin. To prove this, we present to our readers descriptions of 15 representatives of the animal kingdom who use tools in everyday life.
Crows
Primates aside, crows are among the most intelligent animals in the world. Their arsenal of resourceful tricks includes manipulating sticks and branches to get insects out of logs, throwing walnuts in front of moving cars to crack the shells, and even using waste paper as a rake or sponge.
Elephants
Elephants have a distinctive ability to use tools with their flexible trunks. They scratch their backs with sticks, fan themselves with leaves to ward off flies, and chew the bark to make it porous enough to absorb drinking water. But perhaps the most amazing property of elephants is their artistic abilities. Zookeepers give elephants brushes, and these sensual creatures demonstrate extraordinary talent!
Bowerbirds
Most birds exhibit a common tool-related trait: nest building. Bowerbirds, commonly seen in Australia and New Guinea, do even more, and their motives are purely romantic. To attract a mate, male bowerbirds build an elaborate home - a carefully constructed "bow", which is often created using various objects such as bottle caps, beads, broken glass and generally anything that can be found and that attracts attention.
Primates
There are endless examples of primate tool use. Let's name a few of them: chimpanzees use sticks to extract termites, stones and wooden tools to crack nuts, sharp spears made from sticks for hunting; gorillas measure the depth of a pond using a staff; orangutans can open a lock with a paper clip; Capuchins make stone knives by striking pieces of flint on the floor until they produce sharp edges.
Dolphins
The intelligence of dolphins is well known, but because they do not have arms, but fins, many experts did not assume that these animals use tools. At least, until 2005, when a school of bottlenose dolphins was caught doing an interesting activity: they were tearing their lips and wrapping pieces around their noses, apparently in order to avoid scratches while hunting on the seabed.
Common vultures
Birds are among the most skilled tool users, and one of the most striking examples is the common vulture. One of his favorite delicacies is ostrich eggs, but the thick shell is quite difficult to break. To solve this problem, vultures manipulate stones with their beaks and beat them until the egg cracks.
Octopuses
Octopuses are considered the most intelligent invertebrates on the planet, and they often improvise with tools. This guy in the photo carries two halves of a shell with him and, in case of danger, closes them and thus hides. And another type of octopus tears off the tentacles of jellyfish and swings them like weapons during an attack.
woodpecker finch
There are several species of finches that use tools, but the most famous of them is obviously the Galapagos woodpecker finch. Since its beak cannot always squeeze into small holes where insects live, the bird compensates for this deficiency with the help of a branch of a suitable size, with which it takes out food.
Ants and wasps
Even insects use tools, especially social species such as ants and wasps. One of the most famous examples is the leaf-cutter ant, which created an advanced agricultural system by cutting leaves and using them as containers to transport food and water. And solitary wasps break up clods of earth with the help of small pebbles.
Green night herons
The resourcefulness of green night herons allows them to become excellent fishermen. Instead of entering the water and waiting for prey to surface, these animals use fishing lures to force the fish to come within striking distance. Some night herons have been seen scattering food, such as bread crumbs, onto the water to attract fish.
Sea otters
Even the strong jaws of a sea otter are not always enough to open the shell of a tasty clam or oyster. And this is where the cute marine mammal gets smart. The otter always carries a stone in the belly area and uses it to open its food.
Archer fish
Most insect-eating fish wait for their prey and then fall awkwardly into the water, but not the archerfish. Instead, the fish of this species use a specially designed mouth to literally shoot insects with a stream of water. And their aim is excellent. An adult shooter almost never misses, and this fish can hit an insect located on a leaf or branch at a distance of no less than three meters.
Crabs
Even crabs use tools. With the help of claws you can perfectly manipulate objects. Some species of crabs dress themselves in sea anemones, pulling them over their backs. Usually they do this for the purpose of camouflage, although in other cases it is probably just to look pretty.
Beavers
Beavers use tools extensively. These animals build their dams to protect themselves from predators and provide easy access to food and smooth swimming. Some dams reach 800 meters in length. Beavers build their structures by cutting down trees and covering them with dirt and rocks.
Parrots
Parrots may be the most intelligent birds in the world, and examples of their use of tools are numerous. Many owners of these birds learn about this skill when the pet, using a piece of metal or plastic, lifts the cage lock. The palm cockatoo (shown here) is known to line its beak with leaves to use a twisting motion to open nuts, much like a human would use a towel to add friction to open a bottle.
Animal tools and human tools
Without going into the development of labor activity itself, we will note only a few more significant points in addition to what has already been said about the tool activity of monkeys.
First of all, it is important to emphasize that a tool, as we have seen, can be any object used by an animal to solve a specific problem in a specific situation. A labor tool must certainly be specially manufactured for certain labor operations and presupposes knowledge about its future use. They are produced for future use even before the possibility or need for their use arises. In itself, such activity is biologically meaningless and even harmful (a waste of time and energy) and can only be justified by foreseeing the occurrence of situations in which one cannot do without tools.
This means that making tools involves foreseeing possible cause-and-effect relationships in the future, and at the same time, as Ladygina-Kots showed, a chimpanzee is unable to comprehend such relationships even when preparing a tool for its direct use in solving a problem.
Connected with this is the important circumstance that when monkeys use tools, their “working” meaning is not assigned to the tool at all. Outside the specific situation of solving a problem, for example, before and after the experiment, the object that served as a tool loses all functional significance for the monkey, and it treats it in the same way as any other “useless” object. The operation performed by a monkey with the help of a tool is not recorded on it, and outside of its direct use, the monkey treats it indifferently, and therefore does not permanently store it as a tool. In contrast to this, not only man stores the tools he has made, but the tools themselves also store the methods of influence carried out by man on natural objects.
Moreover, even with the individual production of a tool, the production of a social object takes place, because this object has a special way of use, which is socially developed in the process of collective labor and which is assigned to it. Each human tool is the material embodiment of a certain socially developed labor operation.
Thus, the emergence of labor is associated with a radical change in all behavior: from the general activity aimed at directly satisfying a need, a special action is distinguished, not directed by a direct biological motive and receiving its meaning only with the further use of its results. This is one of the most important changes in the general structure of behavior, marking the transition from the natural history of the animal world to the social history of mankind. With the further development of social relations and forms of production, such actions, not directly guided by biological motives, occupy a larger and larger place in human activity and finally acquire decisive importance for all of his behavior.
The true production of tools involves influencing an object not directly with effector organs (teeth, hands), but with another object, i.e. the processing of the tool being manufactured must be carried out with another tool (for example, a stone). Findings of precisely such products of activity (flakes, chisels) serve for anthropologists as true evidence of the presence of labor activity among our ancestors.
At the same time, according to Fabry, when manipulating biologically “neutral” objects (and only such could become tools), although monkeys sometimes influence one object on another (Fig. 24), they nevertheless pay attention to the changes occurring with the object direct influence, i.e. with the “tool”, but not on the changes occurring with the “processed” (“second”) object, which serves as nothing more than a substrate, a “background”. In this respect, monkeys are no different from other animals. The conclusion suggests itself that these objective actions of monkeys in their essence are directly opposite to the instrumental labor activity of humans, in which, naturally, the changes in the instrument of labor that accompany it are not so important as the changes in the object of labor (the homologue of the “second object”). Obviously, only under certain experimental conditions is it possible for monkeys to switch their attention to the “second object.”
However, the manufacture of a tool (for example, cutting one stone with the help of another) requires the formation of such specific methods of influencing the “second object”, such operations that would lead to completely special changes in this object, thanks to which only it will turn into a tool. A clear example of this is the manufacture of the most ancient tool of labor of primitive man (stone hand ax, Fig. 50), where efforts had to be directed to creating a pointed end, i.e. the actual working part of the tool, and a wide, rounded top (core, core), adapted to firmly hold the weapon in the hand. It was through such operations that human consciousness grew.
It is quite natural that from the creation of the first tools such as the hand ax of the Chelles era, and even more so the primitive tools (flakes) of Sinanthropus from the pre-Chelles era, there was still a long way to the manufacture of various perfect tools of labor of a modern type of man (Neoanthropus) (Fig. 51). Even at the initial stage of the development of the material culture of the neoanthrope, for example, Cro-Magnon man, there is a huge variety of types of tools, including the first appearance of composite tools: dart tips, flint inserts, as well as needles, spear throwers, etc. Particularly noteworthy is the abundance of tools for making tools. Later, stone tools such as an ax or hoe appeared.
Rice. 50. Flint hand ax of the Chelles era
Rice. 51. Late Paleolithic tools
From the book The Vanished World author Akimushkin Igor IvanovichTools and weapons The division of the Stone Age into Paleolithic and Neolithic is, in essence, determined by the methods of processing stone tools. Paleolithic people did not polish their stone products and did not know how to drill them. In the Neolithic they learned all this. But, however, stones are not always
From the book Naughty Child of the Biosphere [Conversations about human behavior in the company of birds, animals and children] author Dolnik Viktor RafaelevichTools in the animal world Tools are used by animals at very different levels of organization. Here are some examples. Just let’s not give the word “tool” any mystical or philosophical super meaning. Let's agree that a weapon is what is used.
From the book Bees authorStone tools of ancestors We are all accustomed to thinking that stone tools are indisputable proof that the one who created them was endowed with intelligence. But let’s try to be more careful and allow ourselves to doubt. What do we see? First of all, guns differ from each other. Neolithic
From the book Do Animals Think? by Fischel Werner From the book Forbidden Archeology by Cremo Michelle AChimpanzees use tools We will begin with a story about an experiment that became widely known in its time. In 1917, German researchers expanded the premises of the Anthropoid Station on the island of Tenerife, adding spacious enclosures to it, and here in very
From the book From morning to evening author Akimushkin Igor Ivanovich From the book Password of Crossed Antennas author Khalifman Joseph Aronovich From the book The Missing Link by Edie Maitland From the book Bees [The Tale of the Biology of the Bee Family and the Victories of Bee Science] author Vasilyeva Evgenia Nikolaevna From the author's bookTHE BEE AND ITS TOOLS EVERYONE knows the BEE. However, they only know the so-called worker bee, or more precisely, only adult worker bees. As for young bees, they can only be seen by those who look into the hives: young bees do not fly out of the nest. However, the young one has just
From the author's bookChapter Six Weapons and Tools What good is it for sheep to pass resolutions on the benefits of vegetarianism if the wolf has a dissenting opinion. Abbot Ing (1860–1954) Five young lions rise from the grass. Now they will begin to sneak up on the approaching antelopes. Perhaps this one
From the author's bookThe Bee and Its Tools In the Soviet Union there have always been almost ten million bee colonies, each with at least two, three, or more tens of thousands of insects. What might seem surprising, therefore, is not that everyone knows the bee well, but rather how rarely one comes across
For a long time, the ability to use tools was considered one of the manifestations of intelligence, and the ability to make tools was considered a sign that distinguishes humans from all other animals. Now that we know much more about the use of tools by animals, this question does not seem so clear to us, although the production of tools is still considered mainly as an important factor that had a great influence on the evolution of man.
Tool use can be defined as the use of certain objects of the external world as a functional extension of any part of the body to achieve the immediate goal (Lawick-Goodall, 1970). Not all cases of animal manipulation with various objects meet this definition. For example, we already know that crows lift shellfish into the air and throw them down on rocks to break their shells. Similar behavior is observed in other birds. For example, a song thrush (Turdus philomelos) takes a snail in its beak and begins to beat it on a stone, as if on an anvil, and crows (Corvus corax) and some bearded vultures (Gypaetus barbatus) throw down bones in order to split them and eat the bone brain. However, in this case, the stone used by the animal as an anvil is not considered a tool, since the anvil is not an extension of the animal's body.
One of the vultures, the common vulture (Neophron per spore terus), is known to crack the eggs of the African ostrich, throwing them on rocks. This cannot be considered the use of tools. But vultures can also lift a stone into the air and drop it onto an ostrich's nest, or pick up a stone in their beak and drop it onto an egg (Figure 27.3). This use of the stone is already considered the use of a tool, since the stone can be considered as an extension of the body of the vulture.
If an animal scratches or rubs against a tree, it cannot be considered to be using it as a tool, but if an elephant or horse picks up a stick to scratch itself with it, it will be considered to be using the stick as an extension of its body to achieve an immediate goal . However, a bird that carries twigs to build a nest uses them as material and not as an extension of its body. The nest is not usually considered a tool for raising chicks, since it is intended to achieve a long-term, rather than immediate, goal.
The Galapagos woodpecker finch (Cactospiza pallidd) searches for insects in cracks in tree bark using a cactus spine that it holds in its beak (Fig. 27.4). According to the definition above, this is a typical example of a bird using a tool, but can this be considered a sign of intellectual activity? From a functional point of view, using cactus spines to find food is a smart solution to a certain problem. A person who finds such a solution to this problem is said to show signs of intelligence. And those researchers who intend to judge intelligence only on the basis of the corresponding reactions of the organism to certain conditions must assume that this finch behaves intelligently.
If it turned out that the woodpecker finch's behavior was largely innate, then we might no longer consider its food-procuring behavior a manifestation of intelligence. Observations of a young woodpecker finch taken from a nest at the fledgling stage showed that the bird begins to manipulate twigs at an early age (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1967). If this hungry chick is shown an insect in any hole, he will throw the twig and try to get the insect with his beak. Gradually, the chick begins to reach for insects with a twig, and it seems quite likely that learning plays a role in the development of this behavior. But does all this give us any more reason to consider such behavior as an indicator of intelligence? We need to be very careful here. Even if learning does play some role in the development of the activity described above, it still seems quite possible that woodpecker finches are genetically predisposed to learning this particular way of manipulating twigs in much the same way that some birds are predisposed to learning a particular song. . On the contrary, foraging behavior is the functional equivalent of intelligent behavior, and we must resist the temptation to say that a bird is not really intelligent just because it is a bird and not a mammal. We must be very careful to use the same criteria to evaluate the behavior of birds that we use to evaluate the similar behavior of chimpanzees.
When observing free-living wild chimpanzees, it was discovered that they use sticks, twigs and grass stems to obtain food. The latter can be used to extract termites (Fig. 27.5). Monkeys carefully select these stalks and sometimes even modify them to make them more suitable for the task at hand. For example, if the tip of a stem is bent, the monkey may bite it off (Lawick-Goodall, 1970). Young chimpanzees often manipulate grass stems during play, but they do not begin to use them for food until they are about three years old. But even then they do it rather clumsily at first and may choose tools that are unsuitable for this purpose. It seems that the art of termite harvesting is not so easy to learn.
Wild chimpanzees have also been found to use sticks to extract honey from bee nests and to dig up plants with edible roots. They also use the leaves as a sponge to extract drinking water from the hollow or other smaller cavities of the tree, as well as to clean certain parts of the body. The question of tool use has been studied most intensively in wild chimpanzees, but some material has also been obtained in other wild primates. For example, baboons use stones to crush scorpions and twigs to catch insects (Kortland, Kooij, 1963).
In all likelihood, in the natural habitat, the ability to use tools is formed in each individual animal as a result of both imitative and instrumental learning. In this respect, tool use in primates is difficult to distinguish from the development of food-procuring behavior in the woodpecker finch. Although some biologists admit that the use of a tool in itself is not yet a sign of intelligence, they argue that it creates the preconditions for truly intelligent behavior, including the emergence of completely new forms of it.
The suggestion that new forms of termite foraging behavior do occur in chimpanzees is supported by comparisons of foraging techniques used by animals from different populations. For example, in Gombe (East Africa), chimpanzees use twigs without first clearing them of bark. Sometimes they take turns using each end of the twig. Chimpanzees from Okorobiko (Central Africa) usually peel the bark from a twig before foraging for insects, and use only one end of the twig. Chimpanzees from Mount Assyric in Senegal (West Africa) do not use a twig at all, but use large sticks to make holes in termite mounds through which they select termites with their hands (McGrew et al., 1979). The differences found suggest that there is a certain amount of variation in behavior within a population that can lead to new forms of activity appropriate to local conditions. The termite-fishing technique is learned by monkeys through imitation, and it spreads through the population through “cultural continuity.”
The assumption that certain forms of behavior typical of a particular population are maintained in it due to cultural continuity is fully confirmed by data given in scientific publications (Bonner, 1980; Mundinger, 1980). In a few (albeit few) cases, it was possible to observe the emergence of new forms of behavior in animals and record how these behaviors spread among members of the population. The case of Japanese macaques (Macacafuscatd) living on Koshyma Island is well known (Kawamura, 1963). To force the monkeys to stay in the open, where they could be more easily observed, the experimenters supplemented their menu by scattering sweet potato “tubers” along the shore. They saw a 16-month-old female named Imo washing sand from “tubers” in the stream. She regularly performed this operation, and soon other monkeys, especially her peers, began to imitate her. Within 10 years, this habit had spread throughout almost the entire population, with the exception of only adults over 12 years of age and young animals not yet one year old. Two years later, Imo came up with another food purification operation. The experimenters scattered cereal grains along the shore, and the monkeys collected them one by one. Imo took a full handful of grains mixed with sand and threw it all into the water. The sand sank to the bottom, and the grains turned out to be easy to collect from the surface of the water. This new operation of cleaning food spread among individuals in the same way as the method of washing the “tubers” of the sweet potato. The new behavior was primarily adopted by Imo's peers. Mothers learned this operation from young monkeys, and adult males were the last to master it.
Was Imo a particularly smart monkey? On the one hand, it can be argued that her learning was similar to the so-called insight-type learning described by Köhler, discussed in Chap. 19. Imo made her discoveries by accident and learned to use them. It is not at all necessary that she have any special insight in this situation. On the other hand, many human inventions arise in a similar way. If any ingenuity in behavior leads to a true improvement in the living conditions of monkeys, then this is regarded as a form of adaptive behavior acquired through the efforts of the individual. Judging by the results, Imo appears to be a highly intelligent monkey. But since we believe that intelligence involves the mechanism of reasoning, we need to know more about Imo's thought processes before we can draw any conclusions.
D. McFarland: Animal behavior. Psychobiology, ethology and evolution.
Translation from English Ph.D. biol. Sciences N. Yu. Alekseenko, Ph.D. biol. Sciences E. M. Bogomolova, Ph.D. biol. Sciences V.F. Kulikova and Yu.A. Kurochkin, edited by academician P. V. Simonov
http://grokhovs2.chat.ru/mcfarlan/mcfarlan.ht
Guns
Guns
animals
animals
Performed by Alina Titova,
3rd grade student at MBOU
Secondary school No. 2, Rudni
Smolensk region
Head Rogova N.N.,
primary school teacher
It is generally accepted that
the use of tools distinguishes man from
animals. The entire history of mankind -
this is a story of development and improvement
guns However, our ancestors were not
the first inhabitants of this planet,
learned to expand their
opportunities with the help of non-living things
items.
Find out how to use
animal tools for expansion
your capabilities with the help
Target:
inanimate objects.
What are animals for?
use tools:
getting food,
providing a comfortable living environment,
communications,
aggression
Weapon actions are observed in:
few species of insects
in birds,
in mammals (somewhat more often in anthropoids)
monkeys) in the areas of behavior:
food (breaking a food object with a stone),
comfortable (scratching with a foreign object),
communication (contact through
subject),
defensive (throwing an object at the enemy)
Sometimes the item is pre-adapted to
used as a weapon.
1515 representatives
representatives
animal Kingdom,
animal Kingdom,
using tools
using tools
labor in everyday life
labor in everyday life
life
life
Crows
Crows
sticks and
use sticks and
use
branches to
get it
to get
branches
insects from logs,
from logs,
insects
dumping walnuts
dumping walnuts
in front of moving
in front of moving
cars so that
so that
cars
crack the shell and
, And
crack the shell
they even use
they even use
waste paper in
waste paper in
as a rake or
as a rake or
sponges..
sponges
Elephants
scratching their backs with sticks,
scratching their backs with sticks,
fanning themselves with leaves,
fanning themselves with leaves,
thus driving away flies,
thus driving away flies,
chew the bark to make it
to make it
chew bark
porous enough for
porous enough for
absorption of drinking water.
absorption of drinking water.
But perhaps the most
But perhaps the most
amazing property of elephants
artistic
are their artistic
are their
capabilities. Caretakers
Caretakers
capabilities.
zoos give elephants brushes, and
these sensual creatures
these sensual creatures
demonstrate extraordinary
demonstrate extraordinary
talent!
talent!
Bowerbirds
used in nest construction
tools:
Bowerbirds of Australia and New Guinea,
to attract a mate, males
bowerbirds build a complex dwelling -
carefully constructed “hut”, in
the creation of which is often used
various items such as caps
bottles, beads, glass shards and
in general, everything that can be found and that
attracts attention.
stones and wooden tools for
cracking nuts,
cracking nuts,
for churning fruits
knocking fruits from trees,
from the trees
sticks
sticks for
fighting off enemies, hunting.
fighting off enemies, hunting.
sharp spears made from sticks for hunting.
Chimpanzee
Chimpanzee
PP
pp
ai
mm
ahh
tt
yy
use
use
sticks for extracting termites,
sticks for extracting termites,
twigs and straws
twigs and straws - so that
fish out
- to fish out
insects, especially aggressive
especially aggressive
insects,
moody or poisonous termites
previously
(they pre-straw
(they are straws
slobber to make them
slobbering
to make them sticky
sticky).
Chimpanzee
Chimpanzee
stuffed into hollows
stuffed into hollows
grass to collect
to collect
water flowing in there and and
water flowing in there
squeeze it out
then squeeze it out
then
in your mouth.
in your mouth.
Gorillas
Gorillas
measure depth
measure depth
reservoir using
reservoir using
staff.
staff.
Orangutans
Orangutans
open the lock when
can
can open the lock when
using paper clips.
using paper clips.
Capuchins
Capuchins
stone
make stone
make
knives hitting pieces
knives hitting pieces
flint on the floor until
, not yet
flint on the floor
you will get sharp edges.
you will get sharp edges.
Dolphins
Dolphins
sponges tore and and
lips were torn
wrapped in pieces
wrapped in pieces
noses are obviously for
noses are obviously for
to avoid
in order to avoid
in order to
scratches during
scratches during
hunting on the seabed
hunting on the seabed
Dolphins surround
Dolphins surround
school of fish "bag"
school of fish "bag"
from air bubbles,
from air bubbles,
confusing the fish and not
confusing the fish and not
giving them
giving them
spread out.
spread out.
Ordinary
Ordinary
vultures
vultures
manipulate stones
at
manipulate stones
the help of the beak and beat them until
the help of the beak and beat them until
ostrich egg
as long as the ostrich egg
until
break them down and get the bone
brain. And some are predatory
brain. And some are predatory
birds smash turtles.
birds smash turtles.
won't crack..
won't crack
Also eagles
Also eagles
throw the dice to
throw the dice to
Eagles
Eagles
lambs
lambs
throw the dice to
, to
throw the dice
break them down and get them
break them down and get them
Bone marrow.
Bone marrow.
And some birds of prey
And some birds of prey
smashing turtles.
smashing turtles.
Octopuses
Octopuses
This guy in the photo
This guy in the photo
carries two
carries two
shells and in and in
halves of shells
halves
dangers
in case of danger
case
closes them and thus
closes them and thus
hiding.
thus hiding.
way,
And another type of octopus
And another type of octopus
tears off tentacles
tears off tentacles
jellyfish and and waving
jellyfish
swings them
them
time
like a weapon during
like a weapon in
attacks.
attacks.
reel
reel
pokes a worm
pins
worm with a thorn
sharp fish
sharp fish
thorny like a fisherman
like a fisherman
Ants,
Ants,
creating a developed
creating a developed
agricultural
agricultural
system, trim the leaves and
system, trim the leaves and
use them as
use them as
containers for
containers for
transporting food and water.
transporting food and water.
Tropical
Tropical
ants
ants
tailors
tailors
as tools
as tools
own
use... their own
use...
larvae: only members for now
only members for now
larvae:
families hold the edges
families hold the edges
leaves joined together,
leaves joined together,
others take it in the jaws
others take it in the jaws
larvae and drive them away
larvae and drive them away
one sheet to another
one sheet to another
many allocated
many allocated
spider web larvae
spider web larvae
fasten the sheets.
fasten the sheets.
WaspsWasps
break up clods of earth
break up clods of earth
with the help of small stones.
with the help of small stones.
Greens
Greens
night herons
night herons
use
use
fishing lures,
fishing lures
to force the fish
to force the fish
get closer to
get closer to
impact distance.
impact distance.
We saw how some
We saw how some
scatter
night herons scatter
night herons
food such as
I'm going to the water,
such as
to the water
bread crumbs for
bread crumbs for
attract fish.
attract fish.
Marine
Marine
otter
otter
picks up at the bottom along with prey
stone, one flat.
two two stones
, and one is flat.
Then, lying belly up on
Then, lying belly up on
water surface (this is their favorite
pose), the sea otter lays on its chest
shell or
flat stone with a shell or
flat stone on it
sea urchin, and hits them from above
, and hits them from above
sea urchin
second stone
second stone
Fishbutter
Fishbutter
uses as
uses as
a trickle of water. .
guns trickle of water
guns
Shooting it from underneath
Shooting it from underneath
surface, splasher
surface, splasher
knocks those sitting above into the water
in the water sitting above
knocks down
insects
no insects.
Crabs
dress in nautical
dress in nautical
anemones, pulling them
pulling them
anemones,
on your back. Usually they
on your back. Usually they
do it with a purpose
do it with a purpose
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
camouflage, although in others
although in others
camouflage,
cases, probably just
cases, probably just
to look like
to look
toMany owners of these birds
learn about this skill when
learn about this skill when
a piece
pet using a piece
pet using
metal or plastic,
metal or plastic,
lifts the cage lock. .
lifts the cage lock
It is known that palm
It is known that palm
cockatoo (shown in photo)
cockatoo (shown in photo)
covers beak
covers beak
leaves to twist
to torque
leaves
open the nuts with a movement
open the nuts with a movement
just like a person
just like a person
I'd take a towel to
I'd take a towel to
increase friction for
increase friction for
opening a bottle.
opening a bottle.
Bird
Bird
tailor
tailor
vegetable
spins from plants
spins from
fibers are real threads and
real threads and
fibers
sews leaves,
sews leaves with them
them
building a nest for yourself.
building a nest for yourself.
Even more of these animals
Even more of these animals
who use tools
who use tools
from case to case (those
constantly, but occasionally
(those
constantly, and
moreover, the concept of “weapon” does not have
any defined boundaries:
a pole against which a horse itches,
can also be considered a tool).
can also be considered a tool).
Famous
Famous
Inherit or
Inherit or
are they studying?
German
scientist I. Able
scientist I. Able
German
are they studying?
Eibesfeldt raised a finch chick in full
isolation from other birds, and when the pupil
grown up
cell
grown up
cell
several sticks.
several sticks.
researcher
researcher
planted
planted
V
V
And then it turned out that the bird was born
“knows” that you can get food with a chopstick, but
I don't understand at all how to do this
guinea pig clumsily and haphazardly
stuck the stick into the crack of the cage.
Only one conclusion could be drawn:
there was only one thing you could do:
Conclusion
extract
with help
skill
with help
extract
skill
"tool" the young finch learns from its
relatives.
relatives.
production
production
With
With
The use of tools in one’s life has long been considered a human privilege; this was one of the main differences between “the most intelligent creature on Earth” and the rest of the animal world. It turned out that this was not the case. Animals can also use all kinds of devices in their daily lives. How animals use tools is amazing, and they not only use ready-made environmental objects suitable for their purposes, but can also make tools themselves.
These interesting facts are constantly talked about on excursion trips in Turkey, where there are many smart exotic animals. You are interested in a tour to this amazing country - there is a large selection at kari-ochi.com.ua/tours/kemer/ - study it carefully!
Among the Galapagos finches that became famous after the revolutionary discoveries of Charles Darwin, perhaps the most famous is the woodpecker finch. This bird from the order of passerines never ceases to amaze scientists and observers with its instrumental activities. This finch received its specific name “woodpecker” for some similarity with a real woodpecker in its method of obtaining food.
Just like the latter, the woodpecker finch, in search of its favorite food - insects and their larvae - climbs the trunk and taps on it with its beak, puts its head, listening to see if the insect disturbed by the knock has moved there. If the finch’s subtle hearing hears something that interests it, it tears off the bark and finds a passage there. This is where the similarity between the woodpecker and woodpecker finch's methods of obtaining food ends.
The woodpecker finch is not endowed with such a strong beak and such a long tongue as a woodpecker, so it acts like this: having reached the insect's passage, the finch flies in search of a cactus thorn. Armed, the finch takes the thorn by one end and pushes it into the hole, trying to drive the insect out of the shelter. If it is “stubborn” and does not want to get out, the finch pricks it on the tip of a thorn and then pulls out its delicacy.
There are times when birds of prey, in order to cope with the prey, are not enough with their powerful weapons - beak and claws. And then improvised means come to the rescue. Vultures only manage to break strong ostrich eggs with the help of stones. The bird takes a stone in its beak and very accurately throws it at the egg. This can be repeated several times until the egg cracks and abundant nutritious contents flow out of it.
Among those few animals that constantly use tools to satisfy some vital needs is the sea otter or sea otter. These animals feed on mollusks and sea urchins, both of which are enclosed in protective shells; you can’t handle them with just teeth and claws.
How animals use tools - in order to overcome the shells of a mollusk or the spines of a hedgehog, the sea otter uses a stone. He dives and pulls out a flat stone the size of a fist from the bottom. Then the sea otter turns on its back, puts a stone on its chest and, holding the shell tightly in its paws, hits it hard against an improvised anvil. The sea otter carries the stone it likes under its arm.
There are known cases of animals using various objects for medicinal purposes. Hunters have seen how a wounded man used the leaves of a plant called “sheep’s tail” to make a tampon with which he closed a bleeding wound. The literature describes cases where a chimpanzee applied leaves containing tannins to a wound to stop bleeding.
No less interesting facts can be cited from the life of birds. Thus, they saw snipes making tampons from their delicate feathers and plugging gunshot wounds on their chests with them. And once they observed a completely incredible case: a snipe, with the skill of a surgeon, put a kind of “orthopedic splint” on his broken leg.
First, the bird placed two small slivers, covered with a layer of feathers, on both sides of the broken area, and then wrapped leaves on top of its paw. For greater reliability, the “bandage” was impregnated with an adhesive substance. In another episode, described by the naturalist Machen, a snipe's leg was broken in its foot. The wounded snipe not only connected the two broken bones, but also tied his leg with moss and feathers, and wrapped it on top with dry grass soaked in sticky saliva.
Female chimpanzees (males less often) are not averse to eating termites, but in order to get them through the thin cracks of a reliable shelter - a termite mound - they do not have a long, thin tongue, like anteaters. But they have a smart head and skillful hands. How animals use tools - A chimpanzee uses a strong stick to make a hole in a termite mound, tear off a thin stem of grass, moisten it with saliva and push it into the hole. Termites rushing to fill the hole stick to the wet blade of grass, which the chimpanzee carefully removes with the help of a blade of grass and takes it into his mouth.
If the fishing gear is not suitable for some reason, the chimpanzee corrects it. So, if there are side shoots on a branch, the monkey removes them. If it is a grass stem and it bends, then she bites off the tip with her teeth.
Chimpanzees use stones to enhance some of their actions. With the help of a stone, for example, a chimpanzee breaks nuts and gets to their tasty contents. In Guinea, chimpanzees use two stones to crack nuts. They place a nut on one stone, which is flatter, and then, using another, rounded stone, they strike the nut.
Using a stick as a lever, the monkey successfully moves large stones that cannot be lifted with its paws. Scientists have seen in nature how chimpanzees get water from inaccessible places.
Russian scientists, in the natural conditions of the Pskov region, where monkeys were taken for the summer, observed how chimpanzees examined a turtle with straws, rolled oak silkworm larvae with a stick, examined a hedgehog with small sticks, and threw sticks at a scuba diver who frightened them.
The use of tools for various vital needs is possible only at the appropriate level of development of the animal; low-organized animals are not able to “understand” the benefits in some cases of using tools.
At the same time, it would be absolutely wrong to consider animals that use tools to be the most intelligent. Those of them who constantly use environmental objects to satisfy some of their vital needs “learned” this in the process of evolution, and only this method allowed them to occupy their own ecological niche.
Thus, the sea otter was only able to switch to eating sea mollusks and sea urchins when one of its distant ancestors “guessed” to break their hard covers with a stone. The wolf does not use tools in the process of its life, but this in no way means that it is stupider than the sea otter. The use of tools arises from the need for them, but the wolf has no such need. Nature has endowed him with everything necessary in order to successfully obtain food for himself without various additional means. The wolf successfully copes with its prey with the help of its teeth, while remaining one of the smartest animals.
We told you how animals use tools, isn’t it surprising?
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