托福口语 Task 4

Today, we're going to talk about a fascinating behavior in animals called 'tool use'—when an animal uses an external object to achieve a goal. Now, many people think tool use is unique to humans or primates, but actually, it appears in other animals too, and it often serves a very specific purpose. Let me give you two examples. First, consider the sea otter. Sea otters often eat shellfish like clams or crabs, which have hard shells. To open them, the otter will float on its back, place a stone on its chest, and then smash the shellfish against the stone until it cracks open. This is a clever use of a tool to obtain food. Second, think about the woodpecker finch, a bird found in the Galapagos Islands. This bird feeds on insects that live deep inside tree bark. Its beak is not long enough to reach them, so it uses a cactus spine or a small twig. It holds the spine in its beak and probes into the bark to poke out the insects. So, in both cases, the animals use objects from their environment to solve a problem they couldn't solve otherwise. The key point is that tool use is not just about intelligence—it's an adaptation that helps animals survive in their specific habitats.