Animals Using Tools

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Usually, the blue jay, titmouse, and some of the other birds will grab the peanuts from our patio and scram. Sometimes they prefer to stay and dine on the delicacy. We have seen them peck at seeds and nuts, and we snicker when they step on them to hold them while trying to get the nut open. 

Are they using tools? Making use of what is available may be loosely considered tool use, but that does not fit better definitions.

Various animals and cockatiels have been known to use some tools. Evolutionists have a difficult time explaining this. They also claim it means humans are not unique
RGBStock / Adrian van Leen
I consider my unregistered assault keyboard a tool, as well as the computer. The word tool is a mite difficult to define. One says that a tool is an external object used to manipulate, or gain information from, an environment. Fine, we'll use that for this discussion.

Believers in atoms-to-assassin bug evolution have a mighty difficult time explaining tool use. After all, their puny god Natural Selection should have favored critters with the ability to fashion tools, learn to use them, pass the knowledge along, and so on.

Also, should organisms that are considered closely related according to biological classifications have similar understandings in tool use? Not happening, old son. They also use how some creatures use tools as a way to say that humans are not special being made in the image of God, but that dog won't hunt.

A recent news article detailed how members of a species of wild cockatoos use pieces of wood as tools to break into a fruit to access its seeds. These reports of animals making and using tools appear from time to time in the popular media, usually accompanied by unwarranted speculation on how it evolved. Tool use, however, does not fit well within the evolutionary view.


Animal tool use is a popular topic at lay levels of science. People can watch an animal use a tool and immediately, innately understand exactly what the animal is trying to do. This can lead to projection, where humans begin to see tool use in animals where it does not exist. It is, therefore, important to define what is meant by the phrase tool use.

You can read the rest at "Animal Tool Use". Excuse me while I answer the door, a chimpanzee wants to borrow my hacksaw and drill again.