Rare Video Of Adorable Puffin Scratching Shows Its Intelligence, Scientist Says

For the first time, a scientist was able to capture on film a puffin using a tool. The video shows the adorable seabird using a short stick as a scratching tool.

The incredible video was captured by Annette L. Fayet, a scientist from the University of Oxford. As a puffin expert, Fayet has been studying this species of seabirds for several years now. The first time she came across tool use among puffins was five years ago while she was in Wales.

As she was conducting her study, she spotted a puffin floating on the water while carrying a stick using its beak. The bird then began to use the stick to scratch its back. Although it was a first-of-a-kind sighting for Fayet, she was not able to photograph nor record the seabird using the stick.

Then, in July last year, Fayet came across the same behavior while observing puffins at Grimsey Island in Ireland. Unlike in her previous study, the scientist had placed small cameras in different parts of the island to observe the seabirds. One of these cameras was able to record a small puffin using a stick to scratch its back.

The original video and Fayet’s study can be viewed through the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

According to Fayet, tool use among seabirds has never been recorded before. Usually, puffins collect soft grass and small twigs for their nests. However, they have never been observed using tools before. The scientist noted that video shows a different level of intelligence among puffins.

Although there have already been instances when birds used tools, such as using sticks to catch insects for food, Fayet and her colleagues noted that their recent study provided the first video evidence of a puffin practicing a type of animal behavior known as body care.

According to Fayet’s fellow researcher Dora Biro, an animal behavior expert from the University of Oxford, the puffin captured on film may have been trying to use the stick to remove ticks from its body.

“At the time, when these observations were made, there was also a particularly high parasite load on the birds that year,” Biro said according to the Washington Post.