Cockatoos understand when a job requires a toolkit

Goffin’s cockatoos know when they should convey a couple of software to retrieve some meals – one thing solely chimpanzees have demonstrated earlier than amongst non-human animals

By Clare Wilson

Cockatoos can perceive that they should convey a two-piece “toolkit” to retrieve a cashew nut deal with.

This makes them solely the second non-human animal, after chimpanzees, that appears to view a number of instruments as being a part of a set wanted to realize a single purpose.

Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana) are small, white parrots from Indonesia. In captivity, the birds have been seen utilizing three human-made instruments to retrieve seeds from inside a fruit stone: one for slicing the stone, a sturdier software for wedging open a crack and a 3rd one for scooping out the seeds.

But it was unclear if the birds perceive that each one three objects are a part of a set or if they simply used every software in flip as the necessity arose, says Antonio Osuna-Mascaró on the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna in Austria.

Osuna-Mascaró’s group introduced cockatoos with a cashew nut, held in a field behind a clear cowl. To get it, the birds first had to make use of a brief, pointed stick with puncture the duvet, then use an extended straw to retrieve the nut. Seven out of 10 birds labored out how to do that.

But did the birds see the 2 objects as a part of a set? To discover out, 5 of the profitable birds have been examined once more. This time, the group positioned the field greater up than the provided instruments, so the cockatoos needed to make a brief however arduous vertical flight to move them. Four of the birds discovered to take the 2 instruments to the field in a single journey.

“They are using the tools as something more than the sum of their parts,” says Osuna-Mascaró. “Many animals use tools, but they use them in a rigid way depending on their innate behaviours. Other animals are able to use tools in flexible ways to solve novel problems.”

Some chimps are additionally in a position to make use of a number of instruments. When “fishing” for termites within the bugs’ giant mounds, they use a brief, inflexible stick with make a gap within the nest, then push a protracted, versatile stick into the mound, which the termites chew onto. Chimps additionally convey each sorts of stick with the termite mounds, when wanted.

“We know that brain size is not a good indicator of intelligence,” says Alex Kacelnik on the University of Oxford. “The Goffin’s cockatoos are probably not unique [among birds] – it’s simply that they have been studied.”

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