托福口语 Task 4

Today, we're going to talk about a fascinating concept in animal behavior called 'tool use.' Now, when we think of tool use, we often picture primates like chimpanzees. But tool use is not limited to our close relatives. Let me give you two examples from very different species. First, consider the sea otter. Sea otters feed on shellfish, which have hard shells. To crack them open, a sea otter will float on its back, place a stone on its chest, and then smash the shellfish against the stone. This is a clear case of using an object as a tool to achieve a goal. Second, let's look at the woodpecker finch, a bird found in the Galapagos Islands. This bird has a short beak, which is not long enough to extract insects from deep crevices in tree bark. So, it will pick up a cactus spine or a small twig, hold it in its beak, and use it to probe and poke into the crevices to dislodge the insects. Once the insects come out, the finch drops the twig and eats them. So, both these examples show that tool use has evolved independently in different species as a solution to specific environmental challenges.