{"id":22480,"date":"2017-12-30T08:37:14","date_gmt":"2017-12-30T16:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=22480"},"modified":"2017-12-30T08:37:14","modified_gmt":"2017-12-30T16:37:14","slug":"dipper-smarts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=22480","title":{"rendered":"Dipper smarts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding: 2px 2px 4px 6px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: -0px; margin-left: 8px; width: 290px; float: right; clear: left; color: #555555; background-color: #eeeeee; border: #dddddd 2px solid;\"><strong>Dot<\/strong>: This is the second of two postings about the behaviour of a dipper, dubbed Dot, owing to a white spot on its back.<\/p>\n<p>Once thought to be a uniquely human characteristic, the use of tools is considered a sign of intelligence. Only a handful of animals have been credited with employing tools.<\/p>\n<p>A tool is defined as any physical item that can be used to achieve a goal, especially one that is not consumed in the process. For example, sea otters use stones as tools to crack open mollusc shells so as to eat the abalone inside.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, dippers face a problem similar to that of sea otters, but with caddisfly larvae. The larvae are encased in found materials (sand, wood) that prevent easy access to the grub inside. A solution sometimes employed by a dipper is to <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=10123\">shake off the casing<\/a>. That, of course, does not represent using a tool, which would necessitate using of an external physical object for the task.<\/p>\n<p>However on this occasion, a dipper does seem to make use of a tool.<\/p>\n<p>A dipper surfaces from a dive with a caddisfly larva encased in found material. Dot is standing in shallow water atop anchor ice.<br \/>\n <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-22481\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/dipper171227ds.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>To remove the casing, Dot swishes it through the water. The water has become the tool that is used to remove the casing, much as a rock is used to remove a shell by a sea otter.<br \/>\n <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-22484\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/dipper171227es.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The casing having been removed, the grub is exposed.<br \/>\n <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-22483\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/dipper171227fs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Five seconds after the first picture, the larva has been consumed.<br \/>Can we really credit this dipper with having employed a tool to gain access to the grub?<br \/>\n <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-22482\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/dipper171227gs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Dot: This is the second of two postings about the behaviour of a dipper, dubbed Dot, owing to a white spot on its back. Once thought to be a uniquely human characteristic, the use of tools is considered a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=22480\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds","category-bugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22480"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22543,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22480\/revisions\/22543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}