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Q19 (IAS/2023) Science & Technology › Basic Science (Physics, Chemistry, Biology) › Animal diversity behaviour Official Key

Which one of the following makes a tool with a stick to scrape insects from a hole in a tree or a log of wood?

Result
Your answer:  ·  Correct: B
Explanation

The correct answer is Option 2: Orangutan.

Orangutans are renowned for their high cognitive abilities and sophisticated tool-use behavior. In the wild, they have been observed selecting branches, stripping them of leaves, and shaping them into specific "probe" tools. They use these sticks to extract ants, termites, or honey from tree hollows and logs. This behavior demonstrates causal reasoning and manual dexterity, as they must modify the tool to fit the specific dimensions of the hole.

  • Fishing cats and Otters primarily use their paws or mouths to hunt aquatic prey and do not construct complex probes.
  • Sloth bears possess specialized long claws and a gap in their teeth to suck up insects (myrmecophagy) rather than utilizing external sticks as tools.

Such observations are critical in evolutionary biology, highlighting the close behavioral link between great apes and humans in terms of problem-solving and environmental manipulation.

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Don’t just practise – reverse-engineer the question. This panel shows where this PYQ came from (books / web), how the examiner broke it into hidden statements, and which nearby micro-concepts you were supposed to learn from it. Treat it like an autopsy of the question: what might have triggered it, which exact lines in the book matter, and what linked ideas you should carry forward to future questions.
Q. Which one of the following makes a tool with a stick to scrape insects from a hole in a tree or a log of wood? [A] Fishing cat [B] Oran…
At a glance
Origin: Mixed / unclear origin Fairness: Low / Borderline fairness Books / CA: 0/10 · 0/10
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This is a classic 'BBC Earth' question. It is NOT in standard textbooks like Shankar or NCERT. It tests your general awareness of evolutionary biology and animal behaviour. If you rely solely on rote learning of IUCN lists, you will miss this; it requires 'Science Watch' curiosity.

How this question is built

This question can be broken into the following sub-statements. Tap a statement sentence to jump into its detailed analysis.

Statement 1
Are fishing cats known to make and use stick tools to scrape insects from holes in trees or logs?
Origin: Weak / unclear Fairness: Borderline / guessy
Indirect textbook clues
History , class XI (Tamilnadu state board 2024 ed.) > Chapter 1: Early India: From the Beginnings to the Indus Civilisation > Industries and Tool Types > p. 4
Strength: 4/5
“The tool types of the Middle Palaeolithic period are hand axes, cleavers, choppers, chopping tools, scrapers, borers and points, projectile points or shouldered points, and knives on flakes. Flake industry was predominant in the Middle Palaeolithic period and tools such as scrapers, points and borers were made. Scrapers were used for wood and skin working.”
Why relevant

Describes 'scrapers' as a named tool type used to remove material (wood/skin), establishing the concept of scraping as a recognised tool function.

How to extend

A student could look for animal behaviours that perform scraping with objects and compare whether fishing cats (Felidae) show analogous object use for similar tasks.

FUNDAMENTALS OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 4: Primary Activities > HUNTING AND GATHERING > p. 22
Strength: 4/5
“The earliest human beings depended on their immediate environment for their sustenance. They subsisted on: (a) animals which they hunted; and (b) the edible plants which they gathered from forests in the vicinity. Primitive societies depended on wild animals. People located in very cold and extremely hot climates survived on hunting. The people in the coastal areas still catch fish though fishing has experienced modernisation due to technological progress. Many species, now have become extinct or endangered due to illegal hunting (poaching). The early hunters used primitive tools made of stones, twigs or arrows so the number of animals killed was limited.”
Why relevant

Says early humans used 'twigs' and other simple implements as tools, showing that simple sticks can serve as tools for extraction tasks.

How to extend

One could infer that if other species use simple sticks to extract prey, checking observational reports of fishing cats using twigs would be a reasonable next step.

Science ,Class VIII . NCERT(Revised ed 2025) > Chapter 9: The Amazing World of Solutes, Solvents, and Solutions > Ever heard of ... > p. 147
Strength: 3/5
“In ancient times, before large ships were invented, people used bamboo and wooden logs to travel across rivers and seas (Fig. 9.21). Bamboo was used because it is light, hollow, and floats easily on water. People tied bamboo poles together to make rafts and small boats for fishing, trading, and crossing water bodies. Wooden logs, especially from strong trees were either hollowed out to make boats or used as rafts. These simple boats, made from locally available materials, were important for moving around and connecting different places. Even today, similar traditional boats made of bamboo or wood are used in some regions—not just for transport, but also as tourist attractions.”
Why relevant

Describes use of bamboo/wooden poles by humans for practical tasks (e.g., fishing), illustrating that sticks are commonly used as implements in animal–environment interactions.

How to extend

This supports the plausibility that an animal associated with fishing (by name/behaviour) might use sticks; a student could search ethological records of fishing cats for stick use.

Environment, Shankar IAS Acedemy .(ed 10th) > Chapter 13: Plant Diversity of India > FLANT SIV.ERSITY NF INffiIA > p. 199
Strength: 2/5
“. Insect trapping mechanism: In Pinguicula, an entire leaf works as trap. When an insect lands on the leaf surface, it gets stuck in the sticky exudate. The leaf margins roll up thus trapping the victim. SI..IANKAR f:.-”
Why relevant

Explains an insect-trapping mechanism in plants, highlighting contexts where insects are accessible in leaves/holes and thereby defining the target resource described in the statement.

How to extend

Knowing insects can be trapped in plant structures, a student could ask whether fishing cats exploit such microhabitats and whether they employ tools to access trapped insects.

Statement analysis

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Statement analysis

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Statement analysis

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