ABSTRACT
When we look at spiders’ webs, beehives, ant termitaries, the shells of mollusks and snails, and bird nests, we observe animals making and using tools. Insects use stones to shut their nests, sand to push prey into pits, and cocoons to provide shelter while they transform. Birds use stones against which they hurl their prey or with which they break the eggs of other birds, or they take twigs and bark in their beaks to obtain access to food insects. Many other animals burrow into the ground to create simple or complex
sanctuaries where they may escape the predatory attentions of their enemies. Sea otters crack open mussels using stone hammers, and chimpanzees crack open nuts using a similar technique. The nonhuman higher primates have a more versatile repertoire of tool use. E. O. Wilson reviews such activities in Sociobiology: The New Synthesis.1 He quotes work showing that chimpanzeeuse saplings and sticks as whips, clubs, and projectiles; specially fashioned twigs and grasses for probing ant colonies for termites; sticks as levers and, on a smaller scale, for dental grooming; and leaves for retrieving water and for wiping off materials that cause discomfort to the body.
