Wallaby tool use?
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"Escaped wallaby caught using huge fishing net", BBC News 4/13/2012:
A wallaby that was on the loose from a fishery near the boundary between Midlothian and the Scottish Borders has been found.
The 2ft Tasmanian wallaby was caught just after midnight using a fishing net after he was spotted feeding on a 40 acre estate.
This item was sent in by Tim McDonald, who wonders "why any wallaby with the intelligence to use a fishing net should have to do so clandestinely".
The article adds:
Francis Gilhooly, owner of Leadburn Manor, told the BBC Scotland news website: "The man who sold the wallabies to us told us that wallabies hate swimming so it would be fine for us to put them on one of our three acre islands.
"However, within six hours of us buying them they were furiously swimming off the island.
"It has been a heartbreaking and traumatic time for both us and the wallabies.
I realize, of course, that this headline is unlikely to confuse anyone. But it's a nice example of pragmatic ambiguity resolution — a quick Google News search for "caught using" in headlines leans heavily towards the other interpretation:
Teens caught using fake or borrowed ID
Bachmann Clinic Again Caught Using Gay Cure Therapy
253 candidates caught using unfair means
More motorists than ever caught using their mobile phones at wheel
French Tourist Agency Caught Using South African Beach In Advert
The same is true for this construction in the bodies of articles:
A Premier League footballer caught using his mobile phone while speeding in Manchester has been banned from driving for 12 months.
Revelations of the crimes stunned the legal community and made national news: a longtime federal judge caught using drugs with a stripper and accompanying her to a drug deal with a pistol that was cocked and loaded.
Anecdotally, the likelihood of someone who has been caught using a handheld mobile phone at the wheel going on to make a claim is up to double that of someone with a clean license.
Another dry winter means that water is in short supply: anyone caught using a hose to refresh a parched lawn or clean a dirty car faces a £1000 ($1600) fine …
The ends did not justify the means, but like so many instances of an athlete caught using drugs Silva had a chance to defend himself.
A trainer caught using a park without a permit gets three warnings before he or she can be issued a criminal trespassing notice.
Back in 2010, Phillies bullpen coach Mick Billmeyer was caught using binoculars to look in at the action from the visiting bullpen at Coors Field …
There have been very few fighters I know of who have been caught using steroids who haven't attributed it to an injury.
A Chilliwack, BC, Mountie used a clever disguise last weekend to let drivers know they had been caught using their cellphones while driving.
A wholesale poultry market in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, was shut down after vendors were caught using a cancer-causing chemical to remove bird feathers.
Against those five headlines and ten story-body examples of "caught using X" where X describes the captured violation, I found just three instances where X is the method of capture:
In total 50 rats were caught using the lure rat compared to eight using food bait.
I want to eat fish that I am 100 percent certain was not caught using slave labor.
Small crappies are being caught using a minnow and small jig.
Obligatory screenshot of the wallaby article:
j_bird said,
April 14, 2012 @ 2:14 pm
I cannot tell you how disappointed I was when I finally realized that it was not the wallaby that was wielding the net.
Army1987 said,
April 14, 2012 @ 2:20 pm
The title of this post primed me to interpret that headline the wrong way. :-)
Alexis said,
April 14, 2012 @ 3:00 pm
j_bird, agreed. That would have been the coolest thing ever. I thought maybe there would be a discussion on whether or not the wallaby was cognitively aware of using the net as a tool, or something like that. Oh well. :)
Duncan said,
April 14, 2012 @ 4:51 pm
Vendors caught using a cancer causing chemical to remove bird feathers: I wonder what their plumage was like? Peacock? A vendor with peacock-like feathers would certainly be eye-catching. Whatever the plumage, I guess they hoped they'd be aye-catching as well! =:^)
Fish using slave labor… sounds like a scifi plot to me! They could certainly be dangerous, so might need killed, and if fish are being killed, might as well eat them rather than just letting them rot.
David said,
April 14, 2012 @ 6:23 pm
How much of the estate did he manage to eat before he was caught?
david said,
April 14, 2012 @ 8:04 pm
All of the captured violators were people and all of the animals were caught using a method of capture.
[(myl) Excellent point. To be a violator, you have be susceptible to moral evaluation; to be captured, you have to be something that can be held or possessed.]
Amanda L said,
April 14, 2012 @ 9:50 pm
Like j-bird and Army1987, I thought the wallaby was using the net! Oh well. Fooled by the post title…
Tim Silverman said,
April 15, 2012 @ 2:54 am
Like David, I wondered how a 2 ft wallaby managed to eat a 40-acre estate. Did it pick the whole thing up in its paws or tear bits off? …
michael farris said,
April 15, 2012 @ 6:53 am
I for one welcome our giant net-using, estate devouring, marsupial overlords.
[(myl) Don't forget the "furiously swimming" part.]
michael farris said,
April 15, 2012 @ 10:02 am
"Don't forget the "furiously swimming" part"
Oh, just what I needed, more nightmare fuel….
Martyn Cornell said,
April 17, 2012 @ 10:32 am
What is missing from this story is how fast a furiously swimming wallaby can swim. With those big feet, I an guessing it must be pretty fast – in which case it probably wouldn't have needed the net, it could have caught any fish it was after with its teeth
Dan Riley said,
April 21, 2012 @ 5:12 pm
If only they were colorless green wallabies swimming furiously. So close to linguistics immortality.