Zoologists have captured footage of puffins performing an unexpected behavior: using a wooden stick to scratch a difficult-to-reach itch. Analysis of animal behavior is important for understanding both evolution in the broad sense but also the evolutionary history of humans. One behavior humans excel at is tool use and understanding the origins of this behavior also gives us insight into what it means to be "us." Although tool use has been documented in some other species — like for food extraction in apes and crows — this is the first time body-care tool use has been recorded in seabirds. The researchers found two independent instances of puffins using a stick for body care in locations more than 1,700 km apart. 

This indicates a higher cognitive function in the seabirds than previously thought, and begs the question whether all puffins have this ability or if it arose in certain puffins only as an adaptation to the environment.  Above all else, this finding emphasizes that tool-use may be more widespread than formerly believed and a better understanding its origins may require the inclusion of additional, understudied taxa.