Editing Animal cognition (section)

=== Tool and weapon use ===
{{Main|Tool use by animals}}
Although tool use was long assumed to be a uniquely human trait, there is now much evidence that many animals use tools, including mammals, birds, fish, cephalopods and insects. Discussions of tool use often involve a debate about what constitutes a "tool", and they often consider the relation of tool use to the animal's intelligence and brain size.

====Mammals====
{{Multiple image
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| header = Series of photographs showing a bonobo fishing for termites
| width1 = 200| image1 = BonoboFishing01.jpeg
| caption1 = A bonobo inserting a stick into a termite mound
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| image2 = BonoboFishing04.jpeg
| caption2 = The bonobo starts "fishing" for the termites.
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| caption3 = The bonobo withdraws the stick and begins eating the termites.
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| image4 = A Bonobo at the San Diego Zoo "fishing" for termites.jpg
| caption4 = The bonobo eats the termites extracted with the tool.
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Tool use has been reported many times in both wild and captive [[primate]]s, particularly the great apes. The use of tools by primates is varied and includes hunting (mammals, invertebrates, fish), collecting honey, processing food (nuts, fruits, vegetables and seeds), collecting water, weapons and shelter.  Research in 2007 shows that chimpanzees in the [[Fongoli]] [[savannah]] sharpen sticks to use as [[spear]]s when hunting, considered the first evidence of systematic use of weapons in a species other than humans.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070222-chimps-spears.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070224111514/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070222-chimps-spears.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = February 24, 2007 | title = Chimps Use "Spears" to Hunt Mammals, Study Says | first = John | last = Roach | name-list-style = vanc | work = National Geographic News | date = February 22, 2007 | access-date = June 12, 2010}}</ref>  Other mammals that spontaneously use tools in the wild or in captivity include [[elephant]]s, [[bear]]s, [[cetacean]]s, [[sea otter]]s and [[mongoose]]s.

====Birds====
{{Main article|Bird intelligence}}
Several species of birds have been observed to use tools in the wild, including warblers, parrots, Egyptian vultures, brown-headed nuthatches, gulls and owls.  Some species, such as the [[woodpecker finch]] of the [[Galapagos Islands]], use particular tools as an essential part of their [[foraging]] behavior. However, these behaviors are often quite inflexible and cannot be applied effectively in new situations. A great many species of birds build nests with a wide range of complexities, but although nest-building behaviour fulfills the criteria of some definitions of "tool-use", this is not the case with other definitions.

Several species of [[corvid]]s have been trained to use tools in controlled experiments. One species examined extensively under laboratory conditions is the [[New Caledonian crow]]. One individual called "Betty" spontaneously made a wire tool to solve a novel problem. She was being tested to see whether she would select a wire hook rather than a straight wire to pull a little bucket of meat out of a well. Betty tried poking the straight wire at the meat. After a series of failures with this direct approach, she withdrew the wire and began directing it at the bottom of the well, which was secured to its base with duct tape. The wire soon became stuck, whereupon Betty pulled it sideways, bending it and unsticking it. She then inserted the hook into the well and extracted the meat. In all but one of 10 subsequent trials with only straight wire provided, she also made and used a hook in the same manner, but not before trying the straight wire first.<ref>{{cite journal| vauthors = Hunt GR |title=Manufacture and use of hook-tools by New Caledonian crows |journal=Nature |volume=379 |pages=249–251 |doi=10.1038/379249a0 |year=1996 |issue=6562 |bibcode = 1996Natur.379..249H |s2cid=4352835}}</ref><ref name="psycnet">{{cite journal | vauthors = Shettleworth SJ | title = Do animals have insight, and what is insight anyway? | journal = Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology | volume = 66 | issue = 4 | pages = 217–26 | date = December 2012 | pmid = 23231629 | doi = 10.1037/a0030674}}</ref>

Another bird that is highly studied for its intelligence is the African Gray Parrot. American animal behaviorist and psychologist Irene Pepperberg vindicated that African Grays possess cognitive abilities. Pepperberg used a bird named "Alex" in her trials and was able to prove that parrots could associate sound and meaning, demolishing long-held theories that birds were only capable of mimicking human voices. Studies by other researchers have determined that African Grays can use deductive reasoning to correctly choose between pairs of boxes containing food and boxes that are empty.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Pallardy|first=R|date=May 28, 2020|title=African gray parrot|url=https://www.britannica.com/animal/African-gray-parrot|journal=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref> Until Pepperberg began this research in the 1970s, few scientists had studied intelligence in parrots, and few do today. Most inquiries have instead focused on monkeys, chimpanzees, gorillas, and dolphins, all of which are much more difficult to raise, feed, and handle.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Caldwell|first=M|date=January 2000|title=Polly Wanna PhD?|journal=Discover|volume=21}}</ref> By the late 1980s, Alex had learned the names of more than 50 different objects, five shapes, and seven colors. He'd also learned what "same" and "different" mean—a step crucial in human intellectual development<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Partal|first=Y|title=Animal intelligence: The Smartest Animal Species in the World|journal=Zoo Portraits}}</ref>

====Fish====
{{Main|Fish intelligence}}
Several species of [[wrasses]] have been observed using rocks as anvils to crack [[bivalve]] (scallops, urchins and clams) shells. This behavior was first filmed<ref>{{cite news | url = http://scienceblog.com/48078/video-show-tool-use-by-a-fish/ | title = Video shows first tool use by a fish | work = ScienceBlog.com | date = 28 September 2011| last1 = Com | first1 = Scienceblog}}</ref> in an orange-dotted tuskfish (''Choerodon anchorago'') in 2009 by Giacomo Bernardi. The fish fans sand to unearth the bivalve, takes it into its mouth, swims several meters to a rock, which it then uses as an anvil by smashing the mollusc apart with sideward thrashes of the head.  This behaviour has also been recorded in a [[blackspot tuskfish]] (''Choerodon schoenleinii'') on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, yellowhead wrasse (''[[Halichoeres garnoti]]'') in Florida and a six-bar wrasse (''[[Thalassoma hardwicke]]'') in an aquarium setting.  These species are at opposite ends of the phylogenetic tree in this [[Family (biology)|family]], so this behaviour may be a deep-seated trait in all wrasses.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=The use of tools by wrasses (Labridae). |journal=Coral Reefs |volume=31 |pages=39 |doi=10.1007/s00338-011-0823-6 |vauthors=Bernardi G |year=2011 |s2cid=37924172 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

====Invertebrates====
{{main|Cephalopod intelligence}}
[[File:Octopus_shell.jpg|thumb|An [[octopus]] traveling with shells collected for protection. Despite evolving independently from humans for over 600 million years, octopuses  demonstrate [[Problem solving|problem-solving]] abilities, adaptive learning, and likely [[sentience]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Henriques |first=Martha |date=25 July 2022 |title=The mysterious inner life of the octopus |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220720-do-octopuses-feel-pain |access-date=2024-06-29 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}</ref>]]
[[Cephalopod]]s are capable of complex tasks, thus earning them the reputation of being among the smartest of invertebrates. For example, octopuses can open jars to get the contents inside and have remarkable ability to learn new skills from the moment they are born.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Piero|first=Amodio|date=2020|title=Bipedal locomotion in Octopus vulgaris: A complementary observation and some preliminary considerations|journal=Ecology and Evolution|volume=11|issue=9 |pages=3679–3684|doi=10.1002/ece3.7328 |pmid=33976767 |pmc=8093653 |bibcode=2021EcoEv..11.3679A}}</ref> Some cephalopods are known to use [[coconut]] shells for protection or [[camouflage]].<ref name="Defensive tool use in a coconut-car">{{cite journal | vauthors = Finn JK, Tregenza T, Norman MD | title = Defensive tool use in a coconut-carrying octopus | journal = Current Biology | volume = 19 | issue = 23 | pages = R1069-70 | date = December 2009 | pmid = 20064403 | doi = 10.1016/j.cub.2009.10.052 | s2cid = 26835945 | doi-access = free | bibcode = 2009CBio...19R1069F}}</ref> Cephalopod cognitive evolution is hypothesized to have been shaped primarily by predatory and foraging pressures, but a challenging mating context may also have played a role.<ref name=":1" />

Ants of the species ''[[Conomyrma bicolor]]'' pick up stones and other small objects with their mandibles and drop them down the vertical entrances of rival colonies, allowing workers to forage for food without competition.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Möglich MH, Alpert GD |year=1979 |title=Stone dropping by Conomyrma bicolor (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): A new technique of interference competition |journal=[[Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology]] |volume=2 |issue=6 |pages=105–113 |jstor=4599265 |doi=10.1007/bf00292556|bibcode=1979BEcoS...6..105M |s2cid=27266459}}</ref>