Do crows really like shiny objects and why?

Can objects made for a particular purpose by animals be considered artificial?

• Some animals make tools to reach an objective, like chimps and crows ripping off leaves and side-branches of branches to create poking sticks to get food out of holes. Chimps also use leaves for umbrellas and to build nests. Birds build nests and termites build termite hills. In almost every dictionary the word 'artificial' has as first description that is means 'man-made'. Obviously these objects are not natural objects like rocks or something like that, but according to the general rules they may not be called artificial, while similar man-made objects are considered artificial. As far as I'm concerned the animal-made objects can be classified as artificial, as they're not shaped by just natural forces, but by brain-activity. I ask this question because some time ago I had a discussion with people who thought animal-made objects are not artificial, because they (in my opinion) too rigorously followed the first description in dictionaries, ignoring other descriptions which do not state artificial only means 'man-made'. So, what do you think? Can animal-made objects considered artificial, or should there maybe even be some kind of third classification to create a distinction between man- and animal-made objects?

• Answer:

  You make an excellent point. Except for the part about chiding people for using words according to their definitions. But, yes, we should start classifying objects made by ANY critter to be artificial, whether or not the critter who made it was of our species.