One of the most amazing abilities of animals is the ingenuity with which they use natural “tools”.
1. Gubans use the “anvil”
We all know how annoying the search for a canner knife that has disappeared when you need to open a jar. Even worse: a bottle of wine – and there is no corkscrew. But such difficulties arise not only among people.
Gubans are fish that have found a way out of these situations. In general, they eat small invertebrates, which do not resist, but from time to time they encounter what requires some effort on their part. The Gubans find bivalve mollusks, which they can not eat because of solid shells, but they have adapted to use stones like anvils to shatter them.
2. Octopuses build mobile homes
People tend to put vertebrates on the top of the hierarchy of animals. Curiously, there are a lot of smart animals with no spine. For example, now much more carefully began to study the brain of octopuses, finding out that they show great ingenuity when it is necessary to overcome difficulties.
They are so clever that in Britain they are awarded the title of honorable invertebrates, and they are under the protection of the state. Pursuing prey, octopuses use their pliable bodies to slip into narrow holes, however the soft body does not protect against predators. The problem of their vulnerability octopus decided: they dig out the coconut shell and use it as a refuge. It was noticed how they, squeezed into an empty shell, “walk” along the seabed, thus protecting themselves from attack.
3. Crows use cars
It has long been known that crows are one of the smartest animals. They demonstrated a wide range of abilities, which are now being carefully studied. But to say that crows use cars?
Well, they do not drive them. However, there is evidence that the crows put nuts on the road and wait for them to pass the car, and then come back after the chopped nuts. Scientists argue whether this behavior of crows is pre-planned, but is there any point to argue after what level of intelligence these birds showed?
4. Beetles killers make their armor
In severe natural conditions, good protection can become the difference that determines who to hunt and who to become prey. The killer always needs a good escape plan, and the killer beetle is no exception.
This predator is fed by ants and other small insects. He catches them, sucks the insides, and the remaining husks attach to the back and wears like armor against other predators.
The more “corpses” accumulate on the back of a killer beetle, the less likely it is that it will suffer during an attack. In a dangerous situation, the beetle is released from its “armor” and runs away to live another day. Composite armor is quite a new trick in the arsenal of mankind – and it looks like insects have bypassed this.
5. Elephants look in the mirror
What can be difficult to use mirrors? Nothing – at least for us. But animals and small children, as a rule, are unable to understand what is seen in the mirror, it is their reflection, and not another person or animal.
In science, there is a “Mirror Test”, which determines the ability to feel in the mirror. Scientists conducted a study in which they checked whether elephants possess the necessary consciousness to use mirrors. To do this, they made marks on their heads. Surprisingly, when approaching the mirror, the elephants guided their trunks to the mark on the head, and not to their reflection.
6. Otters use stones
We already know how the Guban fish smash the shells of the rocks to get to the prey inside. The otters have an advantage in the form of working limbs, so they can carry the stones with them. On the seabed, they are looking for stones of certain sizes and shapes, which speaks of the developed imagination of these animals. Then they wear them under their armpits.
As soon as the otter catches the mollusk, it breaks the shell like a hammer with a hammer – and eats the contents. Otters demonstrate the ability to regulate the process of crushing the shell, depending on the shape of the stone, which they use for this purpose.
7. Orangutans use whistles
Some abilities, which we already mentioned, could be considered innate. It remains a curious question: is it possible to teach an animal to use “tools”? It seems that this is possible.
Orangutans seem strangely similar to people in many aspects, and the ability to learn is one of them. When an orang-utan is scared, he makes a whistling noise to scare away the attacker. So do all the orangutans. But in some populations these animals improved their skills and learned to whistle louder. In all likelihood, this is an acquired skill, because it is observed only in certain parts of the orangutan populations.
8. Diggers use “filters” for the mouth
It would seem that the diggers are on the other side of evolution. Living in colonies where only one female is allowed to breed, the rest of the colony spends time, constantly digging the earth in search of food. To facilitate their own destiny, they came up with a method that makes their work more tolerant. The diggers put into their mouth a piece of bark or plant; this helps them not to inhale dust and dirt when they dig the tunnels with their teeth.
9. Spiders use stone “alarms”
Crowned spiders live in small holes in the desert and crawl out to grab any suitable prey that has been with them. Thus, they have a fairly limited hunting range. To increase the area in which they can detect prey, the spiders select seven to eight stones of similar size and shape and arrange them around the entrance to their lair. Most often they choose quartz. Spiders catch vibrations from stones, which allows them to attack prey beyond their usual range.
10. Fronima use a horrendous method of bearing offspring
Is there something more touching than the mother’s love for her children? What could be more beautiful than a picture of how a cat catches another animal, eats its insides to use its dead body to bear its offspring? So the females are multiplying.
Fronima is a small invertebrate that lives in the sea. When the female fronima is ready to lay eggs, she catches salpa – a small gel-like organism, and eats her insides. There remains a hollow tube in which the token can transport eggs and young offspring until it is ready to live on its own.
