Evidence of tool use in a seabird
Documenting novel cases of tool use in wild animals can inform our understanding of the evolutionary drivers of the behavior’s emergence in the natural world. We describe a previously unknown tool-use behavior for wild birds, so far only documented in the wild in primates and elephants. We observed...
Published in: | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
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Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
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National Academy of Sciences
2020
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1918060117 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:900bcb1a-a860-44e6-ad04-746a27f11f6f |
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ftuloxford:oai:ora.ox.ac.uk:uuid:900bcb1a-a860-44e6-ad04-746a27f11f6f 2023-05-15T16:50:15+02:00 Evidence of tool use in a seabird Fayet, A Hansen, E Biro, D 2020-01-06 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1918060117 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:900bcb1a-a860-44e6-ad04-746a27f11f6f unknown National Academy of Sciences doi:10.1073/pnas.1918060117 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:900bcb1a-a860-44e6-ad04-746a27f11f6f https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1918060117 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess CC Attribution (CC BY) CC-BY Journal article 2020 ftuloxford https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1918060117 2022-06-28T20:18:13Z Documenting novel cases of tool use in wild animals can inform our understanding of the evolutionary drivers of the behavior’s emergence in the natural world. We describe a previously unknown tool-use behavior for wild birds, so far only documented in the wild in primates and elephants. We observed 2 Atlantic puffins at their breeding colonies, one in Wales and the other in Iceland (the latter captured on camera), spontaneously using a small wooden stick to scratch their bodies. The importance of these observations is 3-fold. First, while to date only a single form of body-care-related tool use has been recorded in wild birds (anting), our finding shows that the wild avian tool-use repertoire is wider than previously thought and extends to contexts other than food extraction. Second, we expand the taxonomic breadth of tool use to include another group of birds, seabirds, and a different suborder (Lari). Third, our independent observations span a distance of more than 1,700 km, suggesting that occasional tool use may be widespread in this group, and that seabirds’ physical cognition may have been underestimated. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland ORA - Oxford University Research Archive Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117 3 1277 1279 |
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Open Polar |
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ORA - Oxford University Research Archive |
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ftuloxford |
language |
unknown |
description |
Documenting novel cases of tool use in wild animals can inform our understanding of the evolutionary drivers of the behavior’s emergence in the natural world. We describe a previously unknown tool-use behavior for wild birds, so far only documented in the wild in primates and elephants. We observed 2 Atlantic puffins at their breeding colonies, one in Wales and the other in Iceland (the latter captured on camera), spontaneously using a small wooden stick to scratch their bodies. The importance of these observations is 3-fold. First, while to date only a single form of body-care-related tool use has been recorded in wild birds (anting), our finding shows that the wild avian tool-use repertoire is wider than previously thought and extends to contexts other than food extraction. Second, we expand the taxonomic breadth of tool use to include another group of birds, seabirds, and a different suborder (Lari). Third, our independent observations span a distance of more than 1,700 km, suggesting that occasional tool use may be widespread in this group, and that seabirds’ physical cognition may have been underestimated. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fayet, A Hansen, E Biro, D |
spellingShingle |
Fayet, A Hansen, E Biro, D Evidence of tool use in a seabird |
author_facet |
Fayet, A Hansen, E Biro, D |
author_sort |
Fayet, A |
title |
Evidence of tool use in a seabird |
title_short |
Evidence of tool use in a seabird |
title_full |
Evidence of tool use in a seabird |
title_fullStr |
Evidence of tool use in a seabird |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evidence of tool use in a seabird |
title_sort |
evidence of tool use in a seabird |
publisher |
National Academy of Sciences |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1918060117 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:900bcb1a-a860-44e6-ad04-746a27f11f6f |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
doi:10.1073/pnas.1918060117 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:900bcb1a-a860-44e6-ad04-746a27f11f6f https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1918060117 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess CC Attribution (CC BY) |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1918060117 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
container_volume |
117 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
1277 |
op_container_end_page |
1279 |
_version_ |
1766040420744167424 |