Ecological drivers of variation in tool-use frequency across sea otter populations

• Published in: Behavioral Ecology
• Main Authors: Fujii, Jessica A., Ralls, Katherine, Tinker, Martin Tim
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 2014
• Subjects: Original Article; Amchitka; Amchitka Island; Alaska; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/aru220v1; https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/aru220

Sea otters are well-known tool users, employing objects such as rocks or shells to break open hard-shelled invertebrate prey. However, little is known about how the frequency of tool use varies among sea otter populations and the factors that drive these differences. We examined 17 years of observat...