Clever cockatoos learn through social interaction
Parrots learn unique trash bin-opening behavior by copying others

Date:
July 22, 2021
Source:
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Summary:
Scientists have shown that cockatoos, an iconic Australian bird
species, learn from each other a unique skill -- lifting garbage
bin lids to gather food. The research confirms that cockatoos
spread this novel behavior through social learning. This behavior
by cockatoos is actually learnt, rather than a result of genetics.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
For the first time, a team of international scientists have proven that cockatoos, an iconic Australian bird species, learn from each other a
unique skill -- lifting garbage bin lids to gather food. The world-first research published today in Science, confirms that cockatoos spread this
novel behavior through social learning. Led by Barbara Klump and Lucy
Aplin (Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior), along with John Martin (Taronga Conservation Society) and Richard Major (Australian Museum),
the team have shown that this behavior by cockatoos is actually learnt,
rather than a result of genetics.


==========================================================================
Lead co-author, Barbara Klump, said social learning is the basis of
different regional cultures, and some animals, such as primates and birds, appear to learn socially. "Children are masters of social learning. From
an early age, they copy skills from other children and adults. However, compared to humans, there are few known examples of animals learning
from each other," Klump said.

"Demonstrating that food scavenging behavior is not due to genetics is
a challenge," Klump added.

However, a few years ago, Richard Major shared a video with senior
author Lucy Aplin, showing a sulphur-crested cockatoo opening a closed
garbage bin. The cockatoo used its beak and foot to lift the heavy lid
then shuffled along the side to flip it over, accessing a rich reward
of leftover food.

Aplin, who was then researching at Oxford University and has since moved
to the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany, and Klump
were fascinated by the footage.

"It was so exciting to observe such an ingenious and innovative way to
access a food resource, we knew immediately that we had to systematically
study this unique foraging behavior," Klump said.



========================================================================== Major, a Senior Principal Research Scientist at the Australian Museum
Research Institute, has spent more than 20 years studying Australian
bird species such as the noisy minor, the infamous 'bin-chicken' ibis
and cockatoos.

"Like many Australian birds, sulphur-crested cockatoos are loud and
aggressive and often act like a pack of galahs. But they are also
incredibly smart, persistent and have adapted brilliantly to living with humans," Major said.

John Martin a Research Scientist at Taronga Conservation Society, who has worked alongside Major on many urban bird projects, explained how the
research was conducted. "Australian garbage bins have a uniform design
across the country, and sulphur-crested cockatoos are common across the
entire east coast.

The first thing we wanted to find out is if cockatoos open bins
everywhere." "In 2018, we launched an online survey in various areas
across Sydney and Australia with questions such as, 'What area are you
from, have you seen this behavior before, and if so, when?' The survey
ran for two years and helped us determine how the behavior spread to
other cockatoos in Sydney. Importantly we'll be continuing this survey
in 2021," Martin said.

By the end of 2019, residents from 44 areas had observed the bin-opening behavior, showing that it had spread rapidly and widely. Further analysis
of the survey results showed that the behavior reached neighboring
districts more quickly than districts further away, indicating that the
new behavior wasn't popping up randomly across Sydney.



========================================================================== "These results show the animals really learned the behavior from other cockatoos in their vicinity," Klump said.

The researchers also marked around 500 cockatoos with small paint dots
at three selected hot spots to enable the identification of individual
birds, allowing the researchers to observe which birds could open bins. It turned out that only around ten percent could do so, most of which were
males. The rest waited until the "pioneers" opened the garbage bins to
then help themselves.

There was one exception, however: in late 2018, a cockatoo in northern
Sydney reinvented the scavenging technique itself. Birds in neighboring districts then copied the behavior.

"We observed that the birds do not open the garbage bins in the same
way, but rather used different opening techniques in different suburbs, suggesting that the behavior is learned by observing others," Klump said.

The scientists interpreted the results as an emergence of regional
subcultures.

The scientists hope that their findings will also generate a broader understanding of urban living animals.

"By studying this behavior with the help of local residents, we are
uncovering the unique and complex cultures of their neighborhood birds,"
Klump said.

Martin said Sydney and Australian residents can continue to help the
research by participating in the Bin-Opening Survey and Big City Birds
citizen science programs. The citizen science programs can be accessed
at these links: Bin- Opening Survey; Big City Birds.

This research was funded by grants from the National Geographic Society
and the Max Planck Society.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Barbara C. Klump, John M. Martin, Sonja Wild, Jana K. Ho"rsch,
Richard E.

Major and Lucy M. Aplin. Innovation and geographic spread of a
complex foraging culture in an urban parrot. Science, 2021 DOI:
10.1126/ science.abe7808 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210722142003.htm

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