Cockatoo parrots, known for their intelligence, build cutlery-like tools to eat their favorite seeds.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himI cockatoo parrots they are able to build cutlery-like tools to feed themselves more easily. This is a behavior that, until now, had only been observed in humans and in a few other primates and which instead seems to also affect wild Cacatua goffiniana.
Cockatoo parrots are known for theirs intelligencecompared to that of a three-year-old, but the discovery still amazed the researchers because building a cutlery set is truly cognitively challenging.
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The discovery happened by chance while behavioral ecologist Mark O'Hara was working with birds in captivity. When O'Hara realized that one of the birds was making and using objects, he was amazed and decided to investigate this behavior.
O'Hara has therefore initiated one study together with other colleagues, observing birds in the wild, on the Tanibar islands in Indonesia. The researchers found that these parrots are capable of building and using instruments similar to knives, spoons and ice picks to open the fruits of Cerbera manghas and feed on the seeds inside.
Being able to break these fruits with the beak is not easy: the parrots therefore exploit the tree branches, which work with the beak to build wedges. Other branches are shaped to pierce the membrane that protects the seeds and still others to construct spoon-like tools to extract the seeds from the fruit.
Current biology
The tools are created and used in a precise order and have a specific function but not all specimens are able to make them. This suggests to researchers that some parrots have begun making cutlery sets independently and that other specimens may having learned observing them.
In fact, cockatoo parrots live in flocks with younger birds that look at adults with curiosity and learn from their behaviors. Use advanced tools, in addition to demonstrating important cognitive abilities, it also demonstrates how a species - despite being without hands - can achieve skills such as to be able to perform tasks of high precision.
According to the researchers, the fact that these very distant animals can produce cutlery-like tools opens up multiple avenues for future research.
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Reference source: Current biology
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