Thaindian News

Sydney, Dec 1 (IANS) Fish species might not be all that dumb and seem to use their innate intelligence to obtain prey.

“There is an increasing body of evidence that suggests that fish have been largely underestimated in terms of their abilities,” said Culum Brown of Australia’s Macquarie University who made news by proclaiming that tusk fish use tools to smash open shells.

For a long time, using tools was thought to be unique to humans, but studies soon showed that primates also used tools for various tasks such as cracking open nuts, the journal Fish and Fisheries reports.

The use of tools is inherently difficult underwater, especially for animals that lack hands but what Brown has observed is that fish have found many ingenious solutions to allow them to overcome this, according to a university statement.

Many species of wrasse, for example, use anvils to smash open shell fish and other difficult to handle prey. Until recently, there were a few examples of this behaviour but there are now a growing number of observations.

“We now have fantastic proof of these intelligent fish at work using tools to access prey that they would otherwise miss out on,” Brown said.

Brown argued that you can make a case for the way some fish manipulate their watery environment to achieve a desired goal as meeting the common definition of tool use.

“Archerfish squirt water from their mouths to dislodge terrestrial prey items above the surface and trigger fish blow water streams to turn sea urchins over, to access their more vulnerable side.”