Tool-using puffins prickle the puzzle of cognitive evolution

In PNAS, Fayet et al. (1) report on two cases of tool use in a seabird. In two distant populations they recorded Arctic puffins (Fratercula arctica) using sticks to scratch themselves (Fig. 1). The documentation of tool use in this species expands the ever-growing list of tool-using birds through rare observations under natural conditions. Although it is neither the first observation of tool use in wild seabirds, nor the first of stick-tool use outside of a foraging context in wild birds, these findings contribute to the debate on the evolutionary and cognitive origins of tool use.

Discoveries of tool use in animals attract considerable attention, because tool use remains rare in nature and people intuitively associate it with intelligence. Not long ago, the wielding of tools was considered a purely human affair. In the 1950s, when Jane Goodall observed wild chimpanzees fishing for termites, we realized that tool use does not exclusively define us. Since then, tool use has been observed in an increasing number of species, spanning from invertebrates to apes, but is still only found in fewer than 1% of known genera so far (2). From this perspective, every discovery of a tool-using species adds an important puzzle piece to understanding this fascinating, rare, and multifarious phenomenon (2⇓–4).

In the traditional view, tool use reveals intelligence. Therefore, animal tool use has been regarded as one of few windows for studying the evolution of intelligence and our own evolutionary past. However, the picture today is more complex, and while tool use oftentimes does relate to advanced cognition, it is not always the case. The debate typically centers on what cognitive abilities …

↵¹To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: avbayern{at}orn.mpg.de.