20 Animals That Use Tools Like Humans
Tool use was once thought to be a skill unique to humans, but scientists have discovered that many animals are surprisingly resourceful, using tools for various purposes like obtaining food, building shelter, and even personal grooming. Here are 20 animals that exhibit tool use, showcasing their intelligence and adaptability in the wild.
1. Chimpanzees

Chimpanzees are famous for their ability to use tools, particularly for hunting and gathering food. They use sticks to extract termites from mounds, rocks to crack open nuts, and leaves as sponges to soak up water. Their diverse tool use has been widely studied, showing they can select, prepare, and even modify tools to suit specific tasks.
2. Dolphins

Bottlenose dolphins are known to use marine sponges as protective covers for their snouts while foraging on the ocean floor, protecting themselves from sharp rocks and spiny animals. This tool use is taught from mother to calf, showing a learned behavior that is passed down through generations.
3. Crows

Crows are remarkably intelligent birds that use sticks and other materials as tools to retrieve insects from tree bark and hard-to-reach crevices. Some crows have even been observed bending twigs to make hooks, displaying an advanced understanding of tool modification.
4. Elephants

Elephants display impressive tool use, particularly with sticks, branches, and leaves. They use branches to swat away flies, and have even been seen plugging water holes with balls of chewed bark to save the water for later. Elephants also use their trunks like hands, demonstrating fine motor skills.
5. Sea Otters

Sea otters are often seen using rocks to break open shellfish like clams and mussels. They lie on their backs and place a rock on their chests, then smash the shellfish against the rock to access the food inside. This behavior is essential for their survival, as they rely on high-calorie foods to stay warm in cold waters.
6. Octopuses

Octopuses, especially the veined octopus, have been observed carrying coconut shells and using them as shelters or shields against predators. This behavior is a form of tool use as they actively transport and assemble parts to create a protective “home.”
7. Gorillas

Gorillas use sticks and branches as tools for various tasks, including testing water depth before wading in. They’ve also been observed using sticks to balance while gathering food and stripping leaves from branches to make “sponges” for soaking up water to drink.
8. Orangutans

Orangutans use sticks to extract insects from trees and leaves as napkins to wipe their faces. They also craft leaf umbrellas for protection from the rain, showcasing innovative uses for simple tools. Their creative use of tools is evidence of their intelligence and adaptability in their forest habitats.
9. Woodpecker Finches

Woodpecker finches, native to the Galápagos Islands, use twigs, cactus spines, and leaves to extract insects from tree bark. They hold the tool in their beak, much like a human would hold a pair of tweezers, demonstrating sophisticated motor control.
10. Egyptian Vultures

Egyptian vultures are known to use rocks to break open the hard shells of ostrich eggs, allowing them access to a nutritious food source. They pick up a rock in their beak, fly above the egg, and drop it repeatedly until the shell cracks.
11. New Caledonian Crows

These crows are among the most skilled avian tool users, making complex tools out of leaves, twigs, and even their own feathers. They fashion these materials into hooks and barbed sticks to retrieve insects from small crevices, showcasing remarkable problem-solving abilities.
12. Bearded Capuchin Monkeys

Bearded capuchins use stones as hammers to crack open nuts and seeds. They place the nut on a hard surface, then repeatedly strike it with a rock until it opens. This behavior is learned and taught within the group, showing cultural transmission of tool use.
13. Honey Badgers

Honey badgers are intelligent, resourceful animals that use tools to escape captivity and access food. They have been observed using sticks, logs, and rocks to create “ladders” or leverage objects to reach food, showing an understanding of cause and effect.
14. Green Herons

Green herons use bait, such as insects or small leaves, to attract fish. They place the bait on the water’s surface and wait for fish to approach, allowing them to catch their prey more easily. This baiting strategy is rare among birds and shows an understanding of resource manipulation.
15. Wrasses

Wrasses, a type of fish, have been seen using rocks as anvils to break open sea urchins. They pick up the urchin in their mouths and smash it against a rock to crack it open, revealing the soft flesh inside. This is a rare example of tool use in fish.
16. Ravens

Ravens, like their crow relatives, are adept at using tools. They’ve been observed using sticks to scratch themselves and even create simple tools to access food. Ravens are known to be highly intelligent, and their use of tools is just one example of their problem-solving abilities.
17. Cockatoos

Goffin’s cockatoos are known to make tools out of sticks and wood pieces to solve complex tasks, especially in captivity. They have been observed shaping wooden tools to retrieve food from hard-to-reach places, showing both creativity and adaptability.
18. Ants

Some species of ants, like army ants, use their bodies as living tools, forming bridges to cross gaps or rafts to float on water. Additionally, leafcutter ants cut leaves into small pieces to carry back to their colony, where they use the leaves to cultivate fungus for food.
19. Bumblebees

Bumblebees have been observed pulling strings attached to flowers to bring food closer. In controlled experiments, they’ve learned this behavior and even taught it to other bees, demonstrating a surprising ability for learning and sharing information among social insects.
20. Falcons

Falcons, especially the Lanner falcon, use stones as tools to distract prey or break open eggs. They occasionally drop stones on prey or use them to attract animals, showing an ability to manipulate their environment in a way that increases their hunting success.