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 think of primates, but it's actually more widespread than you might imagine. The key point is that animals use objects in their environment to achieve a goal that they couldn't otherwise achieve with their own bodies. Let me give you two examples. First, consider the sea otter. Sea otters love to eat clams, but their teeth aren't strong enough to crack the hard shells. So, what do they do? They float on their backs, place a stone on their chest, and then smash the clam against the stone until it opens. This stone acts as an anvil. Second, there's the woodpecker finch from the Galapagos Islands. This bird feeds on insects that live deep inside tree bark. Its beak is too short to reach them. So, it picks up a cactus spine and uses it to poke into the bark and spear the insects. The spine becomes a probing tool. So, in both cases, the animals use external objects as extensions of their own bodies to solve a problem.