Cockatoos teach tool-making tricks

A team of researchers has discovered that the birds emulate tool-making tricks when they are demonstrated to them by another bird.
The results are published in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B.
The researchers are interested in what they call "technical intelligence", which is essentially animals' ability to use objects to solve problems.

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It confirms how innovative and how adaptable this species is to novel problems”

Dr Alice Auersperg University of Oxford

"Cockatoos are very interesting for this, because they're very playful with objects," explained lead researcher Dr Alice Auersperg, from the University of Oxford and the University of Vienna.

She and her colleagues had already noticed that one of birds in their research aviary, named Figaro, spontaneously used sticks to drag nuts under the bars.
Figaro also worked out how to make his "fishing sticks" by stripping long, thin pieces off a wooden block in his enclosure.
"So we had one innovator, and a very important aspect of innovation [is] how it can spread in a group," Dr Auersperg explained to BBC News.
To investigate this, the researchers set up an experiment where six birds were shown, by Figaro, how to strip a block and fish for a nut.
After watching the demonstration, most of the birds were able successfully to make their own strip of wood, and use it to retrieve a piece of food.
Fishing technique "This was the interesting thing," said Dr Auersperg "They were successful and interacting with the materials, but they weren't copying Figaro - they devised their own strategy of obtaining the reward."

They may be in a battle with the crow family for the title of most intelligent bird.

And Goffin cockatoos have now shown an impressive ability to learn from one another how to use and even how to make tools.
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