A toolmaking crow: to get a treat, she had to be inventive.

Tools are so necessary for our way of life that we seldom think about how important they are. Try to imagine building a house out of wood without using any tools.

We once thought that only humans were smart enough to make and use tools. That meant that scientists who were studying animals in nature began looking for toolmaking by other animals. A number of cases have been found. A recently reported one is fun to think about.

Playful Birds

Scientists were observing a mated pair of crows kept in a laboratory. The crows played with common objects, which became their toys.

One day, the scientists set up a special problem, which you can see in the photos. A little bucket inside a plastic pipe contained food (a piece of meat). At first, the crows were given a choice between straight wires and wires bent into hooks. After a few tries, the birds learned that hooks worked better than straight wires for lifting out the bucket.

In one trial, the male took away the hooked wire. The female used her beak to bend a piece of straight wire into a hook.

Could She Do It Again?

That trick of making a hook looked so smart that the scientists tried to see if she could do it again. In 17 trials, she succeeded 9 times. The male crow sometimes stole one of the hooks his mate had made, but he never learned to make one himself.

Let's think about the accomplishment of that crow in making a hook as a special tool. Of course, if you had thought to do that, you likely would have been proud of yourself. But for a crow to do it--scientists considered that so remarkable that they took photos and wrote a scientific account.

It is clear enough that another animal can make a tool. But those tools are quite simple compared to the ones we make. You can see why the human is considered the "toolmaking" animal.