Comments on: Fish Join the List of Tool-Using Animals (Probably)

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 23:52:50 +0000

Tool use is a tough call. Otters break shells open with rocks, but they pick up the rocks and crack the shells open on their bellies while floating on their backs. The previous writer’s point about the anvil is quite valid. Come to think of it, I have several, “Tools,” I can’t pick up with my hands without other tools. Even as humans, our first tools were made of stone and wood. That’s why it was called, “The Stone Age.” As far as the Archerfish is concearned, people have been using water as a tool for millenia. If it’s good enough for us… Finally, Justin, I have Crows in my yard. Anyone that underestimates the intelligence of a Crow will probably be killed by Crows.

By: Aussie fish guy

Aussie fish guy — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:50:50 +0000

The fish doenst drop the clam. It is wacking it against an anvil. Its pretty obvious its landing blows on the pointy part of the anvil as well to get the best effect.

By: Jockaira

Jockaira — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 15:23:18 +0000

Chris,

You said “The fish simply drops a clam on the rock to open it.”

Gulls use a similar technique to open mussels and clams; eagles to open the shell of a turtle; chimpanzees to crack nuts; and humans to crack coconuts. This possibly shows that the fish’s brain is capable of the same types of abstractive powers as those of those higher animals and that this ability has existed for several millions of years.

By the way, I tried to “drop” a clam onto a rock underwater (just as that fish did) and it didn’t work. I tried this several times, still nogo. I am now looking for different clams to test your hypothesis, but I feel that perhaps I may not be understanding the process completely, that I’m doing something wrong…or maybe the fish knows more than me about “dropping” clams onto rocks.

By: kakkulal

kakkulal — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 03:47:33 +0000

it’s -creative-intelligent- hence it was advised for us to eat the head portion of the fish (the brain) which wood sharpen our mind. …….

…..coming to use of hard rock surface for breaking the clam by the fish ………..fish knew that a hard surface required to break the shell… …..

as human child who has limitation of lifting some thing and hitting the clam, fish too having on arms and also the limitation, the size of clam that it can hold………

when we break a small nut/ coconut we do not use a hammer, neither our two hands simply hit with one hand ………

in both above situations human/ fish actions of breaking shells, it is the hard surface is the tool available to fetch the results.

hence the fish has used the hard/ selected rock for breaking the clam, that is the tool for that fish at that situation, and we shall not conclude at one observation let’s wait for more observations study …..further research required.

By: winglessfae

winglessfae — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 20:15:18 +0000

It still shows that they’re smart, whether it’s tool use or not. And who cares what PETA runs with? Do you complain about the adds from any of the companies in the beef or chicken industry? Ad campaigns are usually stupid anyhow, no matter who they’re from.

By: Chris the Canadian

Chris the Canadian — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 18:43:15 +0000

This isn’t tool use. The fish doesn’t ‘make’ the tool, hold the tool, or use the tool. The fish simply drops a clam on the rock to open it. Now PETA are going to use this to say that fish are highly intelligent creatures that shouldn’t be caught for sport because they sense what’s happening to them and have feelings. Lovely.