Caution: Ingenious animals at work

Sea creatures aren't known to use tools very often, but that may be because we haven't observed them as much. Or they may not need to use tools to find food or meet their needs. In Shark Bay, Australia, however, dolphins have been seen carrying sponges on their beaks. It is thought that they use sponges to protect their beaks while looking for food on the ocean floor.

Some scientists study how animals use tools to try to understand how animals think and how their thinking processes differ from those of humans. How well can animals reason out a problem and decide to use a tool to solve it?

Some tool use seems to be socially transmitted. Younger animals learn to use tools by watching adults. Young chimpanzees in the Republic of Congo, for example, were observed watching their mothers fish termites out of mounds using sticks. Then the youngsters would try it themselves.

Sea otters eat while floating on their backs. They often dive underwater to find a shellfish, then come up to the surface to eat it. They place a rock on their stomach and crack the shellfish against the rock to open it. Young otters watch their mothers doing this and learn to imitate them.

At other times animals have been known to discover how to use a tool all by themselves. A crow once lived in the laboratory of psychologist Benjamin Beck, who studies animal behavior. The crow's food needed to be moistened before he could eat it. When someone forgot to provide water to moisten the food, the crow took matters into his own hands (or beak). He had a cup that he'd been given as a toy. He used the cup to carry water from a trough on the other side of the room for his food.

Researchers study examples like this to try to better understand how animals figure out how to use tools. Do they use trial and error? In other words, do they just move things around until they stumble onto something that works? Or do they reason about what might solve the problem? It's hard to know what's going on in an animal's mind. Scientists still aren't certain how well animals can think through problems and find or fashion tools to solve them. It will take more observation and research before we understand animals that use tools.

• For pictures and descriptions of varioud animals using tools go to www.nationalgeographic.com/ngkids/0307/. Video clips of chimps using toolkits are at: news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/10/1006_041006_chimps.html.

Orangutans are known to be clever tool-users. One in particular became especially well-known for it. An orangutan named Fu Manchu lived at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Neb. In 1968, he found a way to escape. "It was a game to him," said zoo director Lee Simmons. Workers would come to the zoo in the morning and find Fu and his family in the trees outside their compound. The keepers would have to round them up and coax them back into their enclosure.

At first, head keeper Jerry Stones thought someone must have left the door to the compound unlocked. But no one admitted they might have done it.

When it happened again, Mr. Stones figured he was going to have to fire some careless worker. But after the third escape, he started to watch the orangutans carefully. Finally, he caught Fu Manchu in the act. The primate was slipping down to a door that connected the compound with the furnace room. Then, incredibly, he was using a piece of wire to slip under the latch and open the door.

To keep Fu from masterminding any more escapes, zookeepers were careful to remove from the cage any wire or other objects that might be used to unlatch the door.

But Fu wasn't about to give up. One day, Stones noticed that Fu had something in his mouth. Suspicious, Stones checked. Sure enough, Fu had bent a piece of wire so that he could hide it around his gums. He had been storing his latest lock pick in his mouth.

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