A LIONESS in Cameroon has shown that cats can use tools. Hans Bauer of Leiden
University in the Netherlands watched the lioness use a thorn held between her
teeth to pick out another thorn that was stuck in her paw. “It looked like
something you and I would do when we have a splinter in our finger,” says Bauer.
He didn’t get to see whether the lioness was successful with her improvised
needle, but the next day she showed no sign of a sore paw (African Journal of
Ecology, vol 39, p 317).
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