A study showed that cockatoos in certain parts of Australia learned how to open trash cans. And birds from neighboring areas picked up this behavior very cleverly.
Radolfzell / Sydney (dpa) – According to a study, cockatoos learn from each other to open trash cans when foraging. This is what an international research team headed by the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Radolfzell reported in the journal Science.
A video of an Australian yellow-grown parrot opening a barrel with its beak, provided by researchers, gave the idea to investigate its behavior more closely.
A survey of animal habitats in Australia initially found that parrot stinging was only observed in three districts in 2018. At the end of 2019, birds were already being hunted from trash cans in 44 districts. Analysis of regions showed that behavior spreads faster in neighboring regions than in remote regions. Scientists conclude from this that birds imitate each other’s behavior and that it is not hereditary.
Other studies showed that not all birds were able to open the enclosures: the researchers marked about 500 cockatoos with colored dots in three areas so that they could be identified individually. It turns out that only about ten percent of the animals did. The rest waited until the litter boxes were opened and then helped themselves.
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