Degus Show Unexpected Tool Use and Complex Object Stacking

Common degus can use tools and spontaneously stack objects from largest to smallest, making them the first non-ape or non-bird animals recorded doing both.

Biology

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Common degus are small social rodents from central Chile that have turned out to be surprisingly capable problem solvers. Research has recorded them using a tiny rake to reach food that is otherwise out of reach, and another study found them spontaneously combining several objects into layered structures. In that experiment, degus worked with a large bowl, a medium food cup, and a small ball, first making simpler pairs and later building three-object arrangements. They were not rewarded for making these structures, and the behavior appeared while they were being trained for an unrelated task. The researchers found that the animals usually handled the objects with their mouths and sometimes repositioned them with their forelegs. Their increasingly organized stacking behavior was notable because hierarchical object manipulation had generally been documented mainly in apes and birds. The findings do not mean degus have human-like intelligence, but they do show that complex object handling can appear in a much wider range of animals than researchers once assumed. The original study also raised several possible explanations for the behavior, including natural nesting habits and the animals environment, showing that more experiments are needed to understand exactly why they built the structures.

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