Natures wonders: Crocodile tools (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, December 04, 2013, 14:50 (4005 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Stick baiting:-http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/2013/11/30/tool-use-in-crocs-and-g...-QUOTE: "In recent years it has ... I really, really hope ... become better known that non-bird reptiles (turtles, lizards, snakes, crocodiles, alligators and so on) are not boring dullards, but behaviourally complex creatures that get up to all sorts of interesting things. Play behaviour, complex social interactions, gaze recognition, pair-bonding and monogamy, social hunting, speedy learning abilities and good memories have all been demonstrated across these groups. And another interesting and unexpected bit of complex behaviour has just been published. It's so interesting that I feel compelled to write about it today. It concerns what seems to be tool use in crocodiles and alligators."-Isn't it amazing how scientists studying the behaviour of all organisms from crocodiles down to bacteria find the same manifestations of intelligence? The various creatures may use different sensory apparatus and different means of communicating among themselves, but the principle is always the same: they find their own way to exploit their environment, to interact, to innovate. One is therefore led to ask: Did God build the programme for crocodile stick baiting into the very first cells, to be passed down through billions of years and organisms? Did he do a dabble to reprogramme the crocobrain so that it would play its little trick? Or did some clever croc come up with the idea all by himself and then pass it on to his mates?-Is there any difference between the croc's ingenuity and that of the first fire ants who made themselves into a raft in order to survive the floods? Preprogramming? God dabbling? Or independently inventive formic intelligence?