Tool-Using Performances as Indicators of Behavioral Adaptability

Carrying and Washing of Grass Roots by Free-Ranging Japanese Macaques at Katsuyama

“…2). However, this washing technique seemed to be more effective than scraping the dirt off the root by hand in the water, and this behaviour satisfies Hall's definition that the tool provides the animal with a means of achieving an advantage [17]. Thus, the present behaviour may be interpreted as tool use.…”

Culture: A Human Domain

“…Harris is guilty of Aristotelian thought himself in neglecting to consider the possibility that the rubrics he accepts, such as learning and instinct, encompass many different kinds of organized b2havioral patterns based on widely different nervous systems, ecological factors, and motivations. Hall (1963) has surveyed the literature on animal tool-use and has demonstrated effectively that tool-using as a rubric covers many instances with different neural, motivational, learned, developmental, and innate properties. The problem of equivalence with respect to these rubrics is hardly a new one; the past and recent psychological literature abounds with appreciation of this problem (see Nissen 1951, Schneirla 1949.…”

“…Apes and monkeys, sea otters, certain finches, ants, insects, etc., (see Hall 1963 for review) and, it is now reported, vultures (Lawick-Goodall 1967) occasionally use "tools." To elaborate upon these continuities, which are not particularly surprising and which in their essential respects antedate modern descriptions, is to draw attention away from the essential discontinuities.…”

Behavior Associated with Feeding in Captive African and Asian Elephants

“…Elephants can use their trunks to manipulate, and use tools (Douglas- Hamilton and Douglas-Hamilton, 1975;Hall, 1963;Rensch and Altevogt, 1954;Steinbacher, 1965), mostly branches and twigs used for scratching and swatting flies.…”