Kai Caspar
@nomascus.bsky.social
Zoology lecturer @hhu.de | Armchair biologist | Focus on rodents underground and gibbons in the trees, also one of @themanybirds.bsky.social | Organismic vertebrate biology
Positively insane, of course - immensely impressive work
January 22, 2026 at 2:15 PM
Positively insane, of course - immensely impressive work
To some extent for sure - but to stick with the example: Once you look at bonobos in zoos, spontaneous tooling becomes ubiquitous, which makes me wonder a lot about the genetic component, at least in certain lineages (sorry If you attempt to answer this in the paper, still need to read it).
January 20, 2026 at 8:02 AM
To some extent for sure - but to stick with the example: Once you look at bonobos in zoos, spontaneous tooling becomes ubiquitous, which makes me wonder a lot about the genetic component, at least in certain lineages (sorry If you attempt to answer this in the paper, still need to read it).
Yes - different from the stick use, this would not be considered tooling (deliberate management of a mechanical interface), which is exceedingly rare at population-level:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Extending the Reach of Tooling Theory: A Neurocognitive and Phylogenetic Perspective
Tool use research has suffered from a lack of consistent theoretical frameworks. There is a plethora of tool use definitions and the most widespread ones are so inclusive that the behaviors that fall...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 20, 2026 at 12:03 AM
Yes - different from the stick use, this would not be considered tooling (deliberate management of a mechanical interface), which is exceedingly rare at population-level:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Kai Caspar
Might be that learning to use tools individually needs nothing more than shared associative processes. But transmitting tool use socially across a pop requires a correlation between widespread tool availability and social learning opportunities, which is likely rare. m.youtube.com/watch?v=mDnt...
A Pigeon Solves the Classic Box-and-Banana Problem
YouTube video by drrobertepstein
m.youtube.com
January 19, 2026 at 11:19 PM
Might be that learning to use tools individually needs nothing more than shared associative processes. But transmitting tool use socially across a pop requires a correlation between widespread tool availability and social learning opportunities, which is likely rare. m.youtube.com/watch?v=mDnt...
But for many ungulates potentially using sticks in such a way, such requirements appear to be met, right? Perhaps the (for some reason very low) rate of individual innovation might be more limiting here.
January 19, 2026 at 11:32 PM
But for many ungulates potentially using sticks in such a way, such requirements appear to be met, right? Perhaps the (for some reason very low) rate of individual innovation might be more limiting here.
Congrats! How did you become aware of this individual animal?
January 19, 2026 at 4:33 PM
Congrats! How did you become aware of this individual animal?
Glad we don't have to debate tool use in fossil plants, then.
January 15, 2026 at 12:11 PM
Glad we don't have to debate tool use in fossil plants, then.