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Hook innovation boosts foraging efficiency in tool-using crows
James J H St Clair1, Barbara C Klump2, Shoko Sugasawa2
1Centre for Biological Diversity, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK. jsc20@st-andrews.ac.uk.
Abstract:
The New Caledonian crow is the only non-human animal known to craft hooked tools in the wild, but the ecological benefit of these relatively complex tools remains unknown. Here, we show that crows acquire food several times faster when using hooked rather than non-hooked tools, regardless of tool material, prey type and extraction context. This implies that small changes to tool shape can strongly affect energy-intake rates, highlighting a powerful driver for technological advancement.
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