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Tool-Using Animals
Hammer and Paint
Washington--Wasps, birds, otters, elephants, and &pes ase simple tools. They are among the relatively few animals known to do so. Most creatures make do with what they are given by nature, [he National Geographic Socio ty says. For instance, the mole uses efficient digging claws In place of a shovel; the beavsr fells trees with teeth used as a saw. But a few animals pick up handy objects, and employ them for a variety of purposes. A wasp of the Ammophila genus provisions its burrow, then plugs its opening with loose earth. Sometimes the Insect will hold a tiny pebble or a bit of wood in its jaws and tamp the soil into place. The black-breasted buzzard of Australia is a thief of emu eggs. To crack the large, leathery eggs, the buzzard flies aloft with a stone in its claws and dive-bombs the clutch. The satin bowerbird of Australia paints the inner walls of its bower with a bark wad field between the tips of its oeak. The “paint" is a pulp of charcoal or shredded oark mixed with saliva. The California sea otter is the only nonprimate mammal icnown to use a tool to obtain food. The otter dives to the seabeds off California and orings up crabs, urchins, rrjus3els, and abalones. To crack open the mussels, the otter tiauls up a rock about five Inches in diameter, places the stone on its chest to serve is an anvil, grasps the mussel with both paws, and bangs it repeatedly until the shell is oroken. “We watched one otter feeding entirely off mussels for one hour, 26 minutes, during
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