GOD’S WORD FOR NOVEMBER 5 ~ ~ Genesis 1:27~ ~ “So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

Animals can’t think on the level of man, but some of them do use things as tools, and even make tools.

Crows, for instance, have many clever tricks including manipulating sticks and twigs to extract insects from logs, dropping walnuts in front of moving cars to crack them, and using scrap paper as a rake or sponge.

They have been known to attach small objects together to create a stick long enough to reach a food source. Interestingly, even young crows exhibit this behavior without having seen adults do it, which suggests it’s part of their natural behavior.

Bottlenose dolphins were seen tearing off pieces of sponge and wrapping them around their noses, apparently to prevent abrasions while they hunted on the sea floor. This behavior is believed to be handed down from mothers to daughters.

Dolphins have also figured out how to trap fish inside conch shells and then swim to the surface, pouring the shell’s contents into their open mouth.

Birds are among the most prolific tool users, and one of the most startling examples is the Egyptian vulture. One of the vulture’s favorite foods is an ostrich egg, but the giant eggshell can be difficult to break. To compensate, the vulture manipulates rocks with its beak and pounds the rocks into the shell until it cracks. They have also been observed using sticks to roll up wool, which is then used as a lining in their nests.

The octopus has been heralded as the most intelligent invertebrate on the planet, and its use of tools is often improvised. Some octopuses have been observed carrying two halves of a shell. When threatened by predators, they close the shells over themselves to hide, building a sort of protective armor. Furthermore, the blanket octopus has been known to tear off tentacles from jellyfish and wield them as weapons when attacked.

There are several species of finch that use tools, but the most famous might be the Galapagos woodpecker finch. Since its beak can’t always squeeze into the small holes where insects live, the bird compensates by finding a twig or cactus spine of the perfect size and using it as a tool to pry out its meal. This characteristic has even earned it the nicknames “tooling-using finch” and “carpenter finch.” Scientists have found that this behavior is not learned socially, but is innate.

Elephants often take sticks in their trunks to scratch their backs, and Galapagos woodpeckers use cactus spines, held in their beaks, to probe insects out of cracks in trees.

Chimpanzees even use sticks as levers to move heavy objects. They also make tools out of sticks by shaping them to the right size to poke into termite nests. The stick full of termites they pull out of the nest offers them a tasty snack. West African chimps actually use stones as hammers to crack nuts.

Even the strong jaws of the sea otter aren’t always enough to pry open a tasty clam or oyster. That’s when the charismatic marine mammal gets wise. An otter regularly carries a stone around on its belly and uses it to pound open its mollusk meal. Sometimes it uses a stationary rock on the shoreline like an anvil to open mussels.

There are many more animals who use objects as tools. As amazing as this is, the Word of God indicates that they’re not necessarily doing this on their own. Their Creator is always watching them, as we see numerous times in the Bible. Here are just a few.

Job 35:11 Who teaches us more than he teaches the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?

Ps 104:21

The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God.

Job 12:7-10 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.

Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?

In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”

Ps 148:7-12 “Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,

lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth, young men and women, old men and children.”

Job 39:1

Do you know the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or can you mark when the deer do calve?

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