Quick answer
Chimpanzees use hammer stones, sea otters wield rock anvils, bottlenose dolphins wear marine sponges on their rostrums, and New Caledonian crows craft hooked sticks. Tool use requires planning, learning, and often cultural transmission across generations.
Tool use was once considered uniquely human. These examples are supported by long-term field studies and experiments showing intentional selection, modification, and teaching.
10 verified facts
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1. Chimpanzees select and carry hammer stones to fixed anvils to crack hard nuts.
Different populations use different techniques — cultural variation preserved by observation. Young chimps practice for years before efficiency matches adults.
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2. Sea otters use rocks as anvils and sometimes armpit-stored hammers to open clams and sea urchins.
Floating on their backs, they strike prey against stones with learned precision. Individual otters keep favourite rocks for years.
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3. Bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, fit marine sponges over their rostrums to probe sandy seafloor.
Sponge tool use is taught mainly from mother to daughter. It protects against cuts while flushing hidden fish — a culturally inherited foraging specialty.
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4. New Caledonian crows bend wire and strip twigs to extract grubs from holes.
Lab tests show they can solve multi-step problems and fashion hooks from unfamiliar materials — among the strongest tool evidence in birds.
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5. Elephants use branches to swat flies and logs to reach high food or bridge ditches.
Modified objects function as extensions of the trunk. Elephants also block water flow with balls of vegetation — simple but effective hydrological tools.
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6. Gorillas use sticks to gauge water depth before wading and as walking aids in swamps.
Wild gorillas have been filmed testing depth with sticks — a precaution that reduces risk for heavy adults carrying infants.
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7. Octopuses carry coconut shell halves and assemble them into portable shelters.
This qualifies as tool use because objects are carried for future deployment, not just immediate cover. It suggests forward planning in an invertebrate.
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8. Woodpecker finches in the Galápagos use cactus spines or twigs to probe beetle larvae from bark.
Not all populations use tools — those on drier islands with harder bark show the behaviour more often, linking ecology to innovation.
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9. Egyptian vultures throw stones at ostrich eggs to crack thick shells.
Adults and juveniles learn by observation. It is one of the clearest examples of tool use in birds of prey.
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10. Dung beetles navigate using the Milky Way — and some species roll polished dung balls as thermal refuges.
While orientation is sensational, ball-rolling itself is object manipulation central to reproduction. Beetles solve detour problems around obstacles in lab mazes.
Animals That Use Tools: FAQs
What animals use tools in the wild?
Well-documented wild tool users include chimpanzees, sea otters, bottlenose dolphins (sponges), New Caledonian crows, elephants, and some vultures. Definitions require intentional use of an external object to alter something else.
Do octopuses use tools?
Veined octopuses have been filmed carrying and assembling coconut shells as mobile hiding places — one of the few invertebrate examples of tools carried for later use.
Which bird is best at using tools?
New Caledonian crows are the standout: they manufacture hooked tools from leaves and twigs in the wild and solve novel problems in captivity faster than many primates on specific tasks.
Sources
Facts on this page were checked against the references below and our editorial standards .