Tool Use – A Measure of Intelligence
This afternoon I was delighted to have our little Jazzy, the Yellow-sided Green-cheek Conure who was adopted this past July, sitting on her play stand above my desk.
Her mom Wendy Hatchel is doing her two-weeks for a Parrot Caregiver job here at Feathered Friends. So now we have “The Jaz” back to visit!
I was amazed while watching her preening herself. She was holding one of her feathers, which molted out, in her right foot, while preening with her beak on her tail. The feather grasped in her foot was just about an inch and a half long.
Then she took the feather and started to scratch the back of her neck with it! Since many people define intelligence as “tool use” I decided to research that opinion a bit. There are many reports of birds using tools for eating, or entertainment, and even a video on “You Tube” of an Amazon Parrot using a feather exactly how Jazzy did today!
CLICK HERE
Tool use has been defined as “the use of physical objects other than the animal’s own body or appendages as a means to extend the physical influence realized by the animal.”
-----Jones and Kamil, 1973
By this definition, an Egyptian vulture dropping a bone on a rock would not be using a tool, since the rock is not seen as an extension of the body. However, the use of a rock manipulated using the beak to crack an ostrich egg would qualify the Egyptian vulture as a tool user.
The list of animals that have been observed using tools includes bottlenose dolphins, common chimpanzees, elephants, and the western gorilla, among others. (Yes, thankfully, humans ARE included in the list!)
Corvids (crows, jays, magpies, ravens, nutcrackers) have long been known for their intelligence. The New Caledonian postage stamp depicts a crow using a simple stick tool to dig insects out of logs. Young birds in the wild learn this from their parents, but there are instances of captive birds improvising with a hooked tool from a wire, with no prior experience.
So – the gist of it is – if someone calls you a “Bird Brain” – say Thank You!
Story and pictures by Maggie Hall