Video Shows Tool Use by a Fish
Posted on September 28, 2011
Giacomo Bernardi of the University of California, Santa Cruz, captured an orange-dotted tuskfish engaging in tool use in a video. The video was published in the journal Coral Reefs. In the video, a fish digs up a clam and then carries the clam in its mouth to a rocky area. The fish then repeatedly throws the clam against the rock several times to crush it.
Bernadi says, "What the movie shows is very interesting. The animal excavates sand to get the shell out, then swims for a long time to find an appropriate area where it can crack the shell. It requires a lot of forward thinking, because there are a number of steps involved. For a fish, it's a pretty big deal."
Here is the video:
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