Clever puffins spotted using tools in world first for seabirds

With its comical bobbing walk and clown-like markings, the puffin might not be considered the most quick-witted bird.

But a new study has shown that the little seabird makes use of tools to get rid of troublesome parasites.

Experts at Oxford University have documented two instances of Atlantic puffins using tools, once on Skomer Island in Wales, where the bird was observed scratching its back with a wooden stick held in its bill.

In the second sighting, a puffin was seen picking up a stick and using it to scratch its chest on Grimsey Island, Iceland.

It is the first time birds have been seen using tools for anything other than feeding. Crows, ravens and rooks regularly use tools to get hard-to-reach food, while cockatoos have been filmed designing poking sticks from cardboard to knock nuts towards them.

But only primates and elephants have been spotted using implements for other tasks. And it is the first time that any seabird has been found to use tools.

Writing in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) first author Annette Fayet, of Oxford, said: “The importance of these observations is three-fold.

“First, our finding shows that the wild avian tool-use repertoire is wider than previously thought and extends to contexts other than food extraction.

“Second, we expand the taxonomic breadth of tool use to include another group of birds, seabirds.

“Third, our independent observations span a distance of more than 1,700 km, suggesting that occasional tool use may be widespread in this group.”

The Skomer sighting happened in June 2014, and the bird was later seen flying away with its stick. The Iceland incident happened in July 2018.

The authors believe the two puffins were grooming, and using the sticks to dislodge parasites, and to scratch.

Puffins on Grimsey Island suffer from an abundance of seabird ticks, and using a stick may have been more effective than using a beak to dislodge the creatures, they believe.

Seabirds brain size is comparatively small compared with other birds of their size, and they were not considered to have sophisticated mental abilities. But the researchers say the cognitive abilities of seabirds may have been underestimated.

The experts said tool use could be a relatively rare occurrence, which is why it has not been spotted until recently, or it may simply be that seabirds are just difficult to observe.

“Seabirds only visit land to breed, which limits the opportunity for tool use and could favor its use for non-foraging purposes like courtship or physical maintenance,” the authors conclude.

“Such behaviors may also remain unreported because seabirds are difficult to observe. They spend most of their time at sea, underground, or on inaccessible cliffs, and many are nocturnal.

“Our finding warrants further studies on seabird cognition, a topic almost entirely unstudied but clearly rife with opportunity for future research.”