Killer Whales Filmed Using Seaweed as Tools for Grooming

Research Footage Said to Show First Known Example of Marine Mammals Making a Tool

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PARIS - Killer whales have been caught on video breaking off pieces of seaweed to rub and groom each other, scientists announced on June 23, in what they said is the first evidence of marine mammals making their own tools.

Humans are far from being the only member of the animal kingdom to have mastered using tools. Chimpanzees fashion sticks to fish for termites, crows create hooked twigs to catch grubs and elephants swat flies with branches.

Tool use in the world's difficult-to-study oceans is rarer; however, sea otters are known to smash open shellfish with rocks, while octopuses can make mobile homes out of coconut shells.

A study published in the journal Current Biology describes a new example of tool use by a critically endangered population of orcas.

Scientists have been monitoring the southern resident killer whales in the Salish Sea, between Canada's British Columbia and the US state of Washington, for more than 50 years.