Is this 'tool use' by an animal?

[Jonathan]

A while back I watched in amusement as
my grey parrot, with a brain the size
of a thimble, plucked a loose feather
from her tail and then used the pointy
end to scratch a place on her back
she couldn't reach.

Is that tool use?

[Bill Rogers]

I doesn't matter whether you decide to call it tool use or not; you've described what happened clearly. Adding the phrase "tool use" doesn't add any information.

[Wolffan]

On 2017 May 27, Jonathan wrote
(in article<dqSdnfvhlP1147TE...@giganews.com>):

yep. so?

[Glenn]

"Bill Rogers" <broger...@gmail.com> wrote in message news:8cb90390-f19c-4abe...@googlegroups.com...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool_use_by_animals

[Earle D Jones]

*
There are dozens of examples of animals creating and using "tools" for
their purposes.

Do you know of any case where one animal uses another animal to achieve such?

I wrote this a few years ago (about our dog and cat, Chumley and Wally):

"Old English sheepdogs look dumb. All hair, especially on their face,
they can easily walk into a fence post, then look around, grin and
slobber a bit. Not exactly the look of canine intelligence. However,
I came to believe that Chumley was the smartest dog in the world. He
wanted you to think he was dumb. He once put on a display of
intelligence that absolutely amazed me.

Wally, our little black cat, rescued from the pound when he was just a
small kitten, was a favorite of our kids. He seemed to get along with
Chumley since they met each other at a very early age. Wally had the
run of the house, but Chumley was restricted to our big deck and the
family room. We had a sliding door -- a "pocket door", I think they
call it, between the family room and the rest of the house. The door
did not line up perfectly with the door frame and when it was closed
there was a small crack between the door and the frame.

Wally could work his claws into the crack and nudge it open an inch or
two and slip through easily. But this was not nearly wide enough for
Chumley who was pushing 100 pounds by this time. But Chumley would
observe Wally getting through the door.

One day while watching something on TV in the family room I saw Chumley
sniffing around the door, trying to get through. He obviously could
not go through, so he began looking around for Wally. He would hassle
Wally and guide him to the door, where Wally would open it a couple of
inches, slip through and escape from Chumley. Once the door was open a
little, Chumley could stick his nose in the crack and open it wide
enough to go through. I observed this on several occasions after that.

I have heard of an intelligent animal using some type of "tool" to
satisfy its purposes. But I had not heard of an animal using another
animal to achieve this. As I said, this dumb-looking dog was the
smartest dog I have ever met."

Fascinating!

earle
*

[Robert Carnegie]

That includes definitions which indicate,
reasonably, that an animal using its own body
parts doesn't count - but that doesn't allow
for /detaching/ a body part to use.
On the other hand, that's sort of what
a spider's web is, too.

[*Hemidactylus*]

We all got an itch to scratch. Bears use trees:

https://youtu.be/Iq1nfW3Jp2M

Which is pretty ingenuous.

Cats rub against stuff and purr. Dogs bum back scratches off people. We are
their willing tools.

But is plucking a feather to do it as high level as chimps using sticks to
get termites or other arthropods?

I guess anthropomorphically it's akin to a backscratcher humans use but not
unlike scratching with hindlimbs so a grey parrot area to use a pun? If the
parrot picked a lock with the feather that would show more deliberation and
demonstration of acumen. Itching a scratch could be happenstance and
lacking proper insight. Are bears using trees as tools when they scratch an
itch. Does a feather show more insight?

If a crow or magpie did it they would be genius. Corvids are avian
overachievers. Parrots parrot. A tape recorder can do that. I am being
sarcastic.

[*Hemidactylus*]

If a chimp beat another upside its noggin with its own forcefully detached
forelimb would that qualify as tool use?

[Martin Harran]

Dunno about forelimb but penis would definitely count as tool use.

[Martin Harran]

On Sat, 27 May 2017 20:32:57 -0500, *Hemidactylus*
<ecph...@allspamis.invalid> wrote:

>Jonathan <Wr...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> A while back I watched in amusement as
>> my grey parrot, with a brain the size
>> of a thimble, plucked a loose feather
>> from her tail and then used the pointy
>> end to scratch a place on her back
>> she couldn't reach.
>>
>> Is that tool use?
>>
>We all got an itch to scratch. Bears use trees:
>
>https://youtu.be/Iq1nfW3Jp2M
>
>Which is pretty ingenuous.

Not really, cows around here regularly use trees and fences to
scratch themselves.

http://bit.ly/cattle_scratching (Google images)

Mind you, the stretching exercises are pretty cool, he must have been
peeking in the window of some gym.

[Robert Carnegie]

Oh, someone else's body part counts as tool use.
Samson and the jawbone of a theist.

I found a small picture, here. It's a substantial
object.
<http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/04/28/179277601/for-some-young-latinos-donkey-jaws-and-latino-roots>

[The Incredibly Lucky JTEM]

Tool the verb instead of tool the noun...

By paleoanthropology standards, yes. Which
is one of the many reasons why
paleoanthropology is objectively NOT a real
science...

For starters, you have to witness such a
"Tool" is use, it's the only thing that
can distinguish one feather from another,
so clearly the focus is on THE ACTION and
not the object.

Because you have to witness it's use, the
history/development of the "Tool" is
unknowable. With all manner of animals
employing such "Tools" -- including
insects -- there's no way we can rule them
out even as far back as the Cambrian
Explosion!

...it's likely that some creatures
during the Cambrian Explosion used rocks,
sticks or some other object found within
their environment in way that was similar
to what can be observed today.




-- --

http://jtem.tumblr.com/post/161120164979

[Seymore4Head]

On Sat, 27 May 2017 20:32:57 -0500, *Hemidactylus*
<ecph...@allspamis.invalid> wrote:

>Jonathan <Wr...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> A while back I watched in amusement as
>> my grey parrot, with a brain the size
>> of a thimble, plucked a loose feather
>> from her tail and then used the pointy
>> end to scratch a place on her back
>> she couldn't reach.
>>
>> Is that tool use?
>>
>We all got an itch to scratch. Bears use trees:
>
>https://youtu.be/Iq1nfW3Jp2M
>
>Which is pretty ingenuous.
>

You really shouln't be that close to a bear.

[Seymore4Head]

On Sat, 27 May 2017 10:48:36 -0700, Earle D Jones <earle...@comcast.com>
wrote:

Crows use humans to drive cars over nuts to crack them.

[jillery]

On Sun, 13 Aug 2017 20:05:14 -0700, Seymore4Head <n...@none.invalid>
wrote:

Honey guides use humans to get easier access to beehives.

--
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Attributed to Voltaire