Why does the bird use a stick to scratch its stomach, instead of using its beak for convenience?
Five years ago, on an island off the coast of Wales, University of Oxford scientist Annette L. Fayet watched an island albatross perform a strange and unprecedented act. The bird floated in the ocean under a cliff, its beak held a small piece of tree – a stick.
The bird turned its head, stretched out its hand behind it … clawed. Mme Fayet was stunned: she observed old seagulls with the help of tools.
Annette L. Fayet is a gull specialist who is very familiar with the evacuation behavior or eating habits of the plump bird. Even so, his words weren’t enough to convince others that remote seagulls could use tools. She needed irrefutable proof.
“It was only visible once and I was busy with other things at the time,” she said. And no matter how much this surprising event frightened her, “so I forgot to wave it.”
Then luck smiled on her again: in July 2018, Ms Fayet studied a group of caged seagulls on the island of Grimsey, Iceland, a thousand kilometers from Wales. She placed the camera in the area of the island to “get as much video of the behavior of the birds as possible”.
And among the videos she recorded, she saw a bird scratching its stomach with a stick. The bird even turned its face completely towards the camera, showing the entire scratching scene.
It’s not the same as a bird collecting sticks to build a nest, a shy seagull uses soft grass to build a nest! Immediately after picking up the stick with its beak to scratch its stomach, the old seagull threw away its itchy stick. A few hours later, the camera again recorded the stick lying on the ground.
According to zoologist Alex Kacelnik, also of the University of Oxford, this behavior is “in line with the current definition” of tool use. Kacelnik is a prominent zoologist specializing in the behavior of crow tool making and has nothing to do with Ms. Fayet’s research.
Receiving the charming yet surprising video, Fayet’s colleague, animal behavior expert, Dora Biro was also extremely surprised, because “he is a seabird – no one has recorded the behavior of using the tools of this kind. ” The study of this action of the gull-necked albatross is described in detail in new research published earlier this week.
Studying the use of tools on animals can help us better understand humans themselves in the Stone Age, when our ancestors also began collecting stones – the first primitive tool there was. is about 2.6 million years old. However, we always have our hands ready to hold, but the use of beaks or clawed paws to use tools is very rare.
Only less than 1% of species have this ability, new scientific discoveries, breeds capable of using the tool scattered throughout the animal kingdom. Some primates – our distant relatives already know how to use tools, and other species like otters, fish or even a few insects have the same ability.
A handful of birds have this ability: crows can weave twigs to catch worms, and as we can see here, gulls can use sticks to scratch the itch – an act to be classified as “body care. “. According to zoologists, birds exhibit only one other “body care” behavior, which is “ants”, roughly translated as “ants”. Scientists speculate that covering humans with insects with a bird is one way to control parasites or fungi.
According to researcher Biro, the gull-necked gull might be trying to get a tick out of its body. “At the time of recording this video, the parasite rate in this area is particularly high,” said expert Biro. They continued to speculate that the stick might contain something beneficial for the feathers or could be used to prevent pests from growing; It’s hard to say, because this stick has dried up and scientists don’t know what type of plant the “stomach itch stick” belongs to.
Hành động của con mòng biển khiến nhà động vật học Kacelnik vô cùng khó hiểu. Ông nhấn mạnh: “Con chim không cố gắng tiếp cận những nơi khó khăn trên cơ thể. Và tại sao lại dùng cái que thay vì cái mỏ? Kacelnik cho rằng con mòng biển có thể đang cố gắng loại bỏ thứ gì đó có độc hoặc có mùi thơm, ngăn con chim sử dụng mỏ của nó.
Kacelnik tự hỏi một lý do: Các cuộc thử nghiệm cho thấy quạ New Caledonian dùng một cây gậy để tấn công một thứ mà nó cho là nguy hiểm, chẳng hạn như đốt một con nhện cao su để kiểm tra nó.
Hay chỉ là thú vui gãi đúng chỗ ngứa có ở mọi sinh vật trên Trái đất.
