How puffins use tools

A study reveals tool use in puffins. Tool use is rare in animals and mostly seen in primates and passerine birds when they perform complex tasks, often related to feeding. Annette L. Fayet and colleagues documented 2 observations of puffins using tools for body care. In the first observation, which occurred in June 2014, a puffin on Skomer Island, Wales, was observed scratching its back with a wooden stick held in its bill. In the second observation, recorded on video in July 2018, a puffin on Grimsey Island, Iceland, picked up a wooden stick from the ground and used it to scratch its chest. The authors posited that the puffins were most likely engaging in grooming by using the stick to dislodge parasites or to scratch. The authors note that puffins on Grimsey Island suffered from an abundance of seabird ticks in 2018, and using a stick may have been more effective than using a beak to dislodge ticks. The findings suggest that occasional tool use may occur in puffin populations, and that the physical cognitive abilities of seabirds may have been underestimated, according to the authors.

Article #19-18060: “Evidence of tool use in a seabird,” by Annette L. Fayet, Erpur Snær Hansen, and Dora Biro.

MEDIA CONTACT: Annette L. Fayet, University of Oxford, UNITED KINGDOM; tel: +44-7539015972; email:

[email protected]

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