TY - JOUR
T1 - Tool use promotes dental health
T2 - Using tools increases foraging success in sea otters and protects their teeth from damage
AU - Klump, Barbara C.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved.
PY - 2024/5/16
Y1 - 2024/5/16
N2 - Across the animal kingdom, different types of adaptation have evolved that allow animals to access otherwise inaccessible prey. These range from morphological adaptations, such as elongated fingers in aye-aye lemurs (Daubentonia madagascariensis) (1), to behavioural adaptations, such as prey drop-ping by corvids, gulls, and raptors (2) and tool use in birds and mammals (3). Using tools, such as sticks and stones, for ex-tractive foraging allows animals to access highly nutritious prey but also incurs time and energy costs (4). It is, therefore, gen-erally assumed that the benefits of tool use outweigh the costs for this behaviour to be maintained in a population (5). However, quantifying these benefits-especially in terms of fitness-remains challenging (6).On page 798 of this issue, Law et al. (7) re-port that tool use allows southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) to increase foraging success while reducing tooth damage, di-rectly linking the physical benefits of tool use to improved overall fitness.
AB - Across the animal kingdom, different types of adaptation have evolved that allow animals to access otherwise inaccessible prey. These range from morphological adaptations, such as elongated fingers in aye-aye lemurs (Daubentonia madagascariensis) (1), to behavioural adaptations, such as prey drop-ping by corvids, gulls, and raptors (2) and tool use in birds and mammals (3). Using tools, such as sticks and stones, for ex-tractive foraging allows animals to access highly nutritious prey but also incurs time and energy costs (4). It is, therefore, gen-erally assumed that the benefits of tool use outweigh the costs for this behaviour to be maintained in a population (5). However, quantifying these benefits-especially in terms of fitness-remains challenging (6).On page 798 of this issue, Law et al. (7) re-port that tool use allows southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) to increase foraging success while reducing tooth damage, di-rectly linking the physical benefits of tool use to improved overall fitness.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85193494913&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1126/science.adp4375
DO - 10.1126/science.adp4375
M3 - Article
C2 - 38753804
AN - SCOPUS:85193494913
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 384
SP - 740
EP - 741
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 6697
ER -