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Cockatoos In Sydney Learned To Open Bin Lids By Watching Others
A sulphur-crested cockatoo watches as another opens a bin in Sydney in 2019 (Photo/sky)
- Cockatoos in Sydney have been discovered to open bins - and the method is catching on and since others have taught how to do it by watching them.
- Mr. Major and his colleagues in Germany were impressed by their resourcefulness and investigated how many cockatoos had mastered the trick.
According to scientists, Cockatoos in Sydney have been discovered to open bins - and the method is catching on and since others have taught how to do it by watching them.
Ornithologist Richard Major first noticed sulfur-crested cockatoos scavenging for food by opening the lids of bins a few years ago. Mr. Major and his colleagues in Germany were impressed by their resourcefulness and investigated how many cockatoos had mastered the trick. He explained that the quite rapid spreaddidn't happen at random, but rather began in the southern suburbs and moved outwards.
The phenomena was first observed in three Sydney suburbs in early 2018, and by late 2019, it had spread to 44 suburbs. The scientist's teamconcluded that most of thebirds learned by observing others after analyzing films of 160 of the intelligent birds raising bin lids and determining the geographic spread. The birds must use their beaks to hold the bin lid and pry it open, which is quite a feat of expertise.
Other examples of social learning in birds have been observed and witnessed by scientists, such as blue tits in the United Kingdom that learnt to puncture foil caps of milk bottles in the 1920s. The study's co-author, Lucy Aplin, a cognitive ecologist at Germany's Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour, said real-time observations of a novel culture tendencyemerging in the wild or suburbs in this case provided a unique chance for the cockatoo researchers.
Cockatoos are social birds who explore in small groups, roost in big groups, and are rarely seen alone in Sydney. However, it is also believed that the birds had picked up the trick from their peers. In the end, it became as popular as a popular dance move. Althoughmany wildlife have suffered as Australia's cities have grown, these bold and showy birds have prospered.
Meanwhile, in the summer of 2019, her colleague Barbara Klump documented roughly 160 successful attempts by the birds on garbage collection day in the Sydney suburbs. Males, on average, are larger than females and are more likely to be dominant in social hierarchies.
