Puffins use sticks to scratch an itch

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Atlantic Puffins are the first seabirds observed using tools.

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The first time Annette Fayet observed an Atlantic Puffin scratching itself with a stick was on Skomer Island (Wales) in 2014. She saw the bird holding a wooden stick in its beak and using it to scratch its back for about five seconds.

Only four years later, however, the seabird ecologist managed to capture this behavior on film using a camera trap—this time in a Puffin breeding colony on Grímsey Island (Iceland).

She had documented the first evidence of tool use in a seabird.

Scientists define ‘tool use’ as “the exertion of control over a freely manipulable external object (the tool) with the goal of (1) altering the physical properties of another object, substance, surface or medium (the target, which may be the tool user or another organism) via a dynamic mechanical interaction, or (2) mediating the flow of information between the tool user and the environment or other organisms in the environment” (Amant & Horton 2008).

Animal tool use is often associated with feeding and only rarely with body care. Fayet’s observation, published as a Brief Report in the journal PNAS¹ in 2019, provided a surprising addition to the small number of known cases of body-care-related tool use in animals. Until then, the only other birds ever observed to scratch themselves with a stick had been parrots in captivity. In the wild, this behavior had only been documented in primates and elephants.

In their publication, Fayet and her co-authors conclude that “as such, seabirds’ cognitive capacities may have been considerably underestimated”.

Photo by Ray Harrington on Unsplash.

The researchers assume that the Puffins scratched themselves to relieve an itch or dislodge parasites—which is likely, since Puffins suffer greatly from seabird ticks (Ixodes uriae) infesting their breeding colonies.

Fayet’s discovery gained widespread media attention but also sparked criticism. In an open letter to the journal PNAS², cognitive biologist Alice Auersperg and colleagues questioned the credibility of the observations as evidence for tool use. They argued that the handling of sticks might instead have been a collection of nesting material or part of a mating display. In a published response³, the authors of the original paper countered that this was highly unlikely, given that the Puffins in the monitored breeding colonies were only ever observed collecting soft materials such as feathers and grass for nesting—never sticks.

A nice example showing that even scientists don’t always agree. I can only hope that the observations by Fayet and colleagues have opened up new research avenues further exploring tool use in these remarkable seabirds.

You can read and judge for yourselves:

• Original study by Fayet et al.: Evidence of tool use in a seabird
• Criticism by Auersperg et al.: Do puffins use tools?
• Response by Fayet et al.: Reply to Auersperg et al.: Puffin tool use is no fluke

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