Tool use is not exclusive to humans, but its scale in humans is astonishing

Rutherford documents tool use across a surprising range of species: chimpanzees fashion sticks to extract termites, orangutans use branches to fish, crows in Caledonia manufacture hooked tools to reach food, and dolphins in Australia wear sea sponges on their beaks as protective nose guards while foraging on rough seafloors. Tool use has now been documented across roughly nine different animal classes, from insects to birds to mammals, though it remains rare overall, appearing in under one percent of known species. What sets human tool use apart isn't the basic concept but its sheer sophistication: humans have progressed from sharpened stones to internal combustion engines and computers, a difference of degree so extreme it functions almost like a difference in kind. Takeaway: humans didn't invent tool use; we simply took it further than any other species ever has.