Tool Use in Alligators

Alligators have been known to balance sticks on their snout [blogs.scientificamerican.com, 2013] during specific periods of the year as a lure for nest-building egrets.

Alligators are clearly smarter than commonly given credit.

Be careful out there.

Photo credits: Alligator [wjhg.com]; Hamburger [dairyqueen.com]

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In a similar vein, new studies on ravens cognition shows they have the ability to plan for the future [sciencemag.org], even better than four-year old humans [arstechnica.com].