Fish have long been thought to be "simple reflex animals" but new research has shown that at least one species is capable of high-level cognition and even the use of tools.
The abilities of the fish in question, the freshwater stingray, even rival that of birds and mammals, researchers report.
Part of the reason these stingrays, which are common in the Amazon and related to ocean-going stingrays, has long been considered cognitively simple is that testing them is very difficult. Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, however, were able to reach surprising conclusions with a battery of cleverly designed tasks.
When they placed food in a small plastic tube, the stingrays demonstrated a keen problem-solving ability by directing jets of water into the opening, forcing the food out. The jet of water, Dr. Michael Kuba, the scientist who led the research, explained, meets the basic definition of a tool. Following a study conducted by Dr. Benjamin Beck in 1980, researchers define tool use as "using an agent to achieve a goal."
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