Notes

Amazing Animal Behaviour: The Tool Using Tuskfish
That our world's wildlife is both remarkable and highly adaptable is not any secret. But what's now only becoming clear with advances in our own technology is the scope of these physical and cognitive abilities. more info of our marine wildlife has recently experienced the spotlight with the release of acclaimed naturalist Sir David Attenborough's latest nature documentary, the outstanding Blue Planet 2.
Footage of the tuskfish on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, gaining access to the meat inside a clam shell is just one on the many never-before-filmed moments that the Blue Planet 2 team has captured. The footage was captured by way of sophisticated underwater cameras, but it may be the fish's clear ability to problem solve as a way to access a food source that is this type of landmark discovery.

The Ingenious Tusk Fish

To get why the fish's behaviour is so extraordinary it's necessary to understand its complexity. Firstly, the tuskfish exposes a clam buried in the sand by snapping shut its gill covers at high speed, creating a gush of water to uncover the clam. It then took its prey between its jaws and smashes it against a piece of coral repeatedly and precisely, before shell breaks and the soft flesh is revealed. The fish then devours the flesh and spits out any fragments of shell.

Tools and Tenacity

But the most remarkable facet of this behaviour is that a fish uses its particular little bit of coral each and every time, which has been chosen because of its anvil-like properties. The team identified and filmed a tuskfish returning multiple times throughout the day to the same piece of coral to harvest clams, sometimes opening them in as little as 5 minutes, but other times taking up to an hour to complete the task.

That the fish uses the same sequence of behaviours to discover the clam, go back to the same site, and then smash open the shell reveals that it not merely uses tools (putting it in the elite band of wildlife that does so), but that in addition, it has the opportunity to forward plan. You can find piles of clam shells all around the sea bed in the Great Barrier Reef, confirming that this is not any isolated behaviour.

Persistence and Planning

While this was not the very first time this sort of behaviour have been reported in the fish, the Blue Planet 2 sequence is the first professional footage ? and equal levels of persistence and planning. The camera team spent more than 100 hours filming in the waters of the fantastic Barrier Reef to capture the intimate and revealing footage, that is now used to document further research into marine wildlife.

Uncover the Last Great Wilderness on a Wildlife Cruise

While Sir David Attenborough continues to introduce us to such astonishing and resourceful marine creatures as a fish that uses tools, it's a safe bet there are a lot more mysteries of the ocean still undiscovered than even he could ever imagine. Exploring our oceans on a separate wildlife cruise is probably the best ways to gain a little, privileged view into some of the only untouched wilderness areas left on earth.

Author Plate

Marissa Ellis-Snow is really a freelance nature writer with a particular fascination with marine species. For nature lovers thinking about a dedicated wildlife cruise, Marissa recommends thetours organised by Naturetrek, which have brought her unforgettable sightings of an array of species in another of probably the most spectacular regions on Earth.
My Website: https://www.olcbdfan.com/google-pay-on-iphone/