托福口语 Task 4

Today, we're going to talk about a fascinating behavior in the animal kingdom called 'tool use'—the ability of animals to use objects from their environment to achieve a goal. Now, many people think tool use is unique to humans, but that's not true. In fact, several non-human animals demonstrate this skill, and it often serves specific survival purposes. Let me give you two examples. First, consider the sea otter. Sea otters feed on clams and crabs, but these have hard shells. So, when a sea otter finds a clam, it will dive down and pick up a stone. Then, floating on its back, it places the stone on its chest and uses it as an anvil, smashing the clam against the stone to crack open the shell. This allows the otter to access the meat inside. Second, think about the New Caledonian crow. These crows are known to create tools from leaves or twigs to extract insects from tree bark. In particular, they will snip a leaf into a pointed shape and then use this as a probe to poke into crevices and pull out grubs. This behavior is not just instinctive; crows actually learn and improve this technique over time. So, as you can see, tool use in animals is not only common but also highly adaptive.