“In an unpredictable, rapidly changing environment with unpredictable food sources, opportunistic animals thrive,” said Isabelle Laumer, a behavioral researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the research. While many animals have declined with the expansion of Australian cities, these bold and flamboyant birds generally have thrived. “This suggests that if you’re more socially connected, you have more opportunities to observe and acquire new behavior - and also to spread it,” she said.Ĭockatoos are extremely gregarious birds that forage in small groups, roost in large ones, and are rarely seen alone in Sydney. The birds that mastered the trick also tended to be dominant in social hierarchies. Not all cockatoos succeeded in opening them, but she took around 160 videos of victorious efforts.Īnalyzing the footage, Klump realized the vast majority of birds opening bins were males, which tend to be larger than females. As garbage trucks rolled down their routes and people shoved bins to the curb, Max Planck Institute behavioral ecologist Barbara Klump drove around and stopped to record cockatoos landing on bins. “This is a scientist’s dream,” she said.ĭuring summer of 2019, trash-collection day in suburban Sydney was the team’s research day. One classic case involves small birds called blue tits that learned to puncture foil lids of milk bottles in the United Kingdom starting in the 1920s - a crafty move, though less complex and physically demanding than opening trash bins.īut observing a new “cultural trend” spreading in the wild - or suburbs - in real time afforded the cockatoo researchers a special opportunity, said Lucy Aplin, a cognitive ecologist at Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavioral in Germany and co-author of the study. Scientists have documented other examples of social learning in birds. Basically, it caught on like a hot dance move. It started in southern suburbs and radiated outwards,” said Major. “That spread wasn’t just popping up randomly. And their research published Thursday in the journal Science concluded the birds mostly learned by watching their peers.
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The researchers’ next question was whether the cockatoos had each figured out how to do this alone - or whether they copied the strategy from experienced birds. “From three suburbs to 44 in two years is a pretty rapid spread,” said Major, who is based at the Australian Museum. (Barbara Klump/Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior) By the end of 2019, birds were lifting bins in 44 suburbs.
At the beginning of 2018, researchers received reports from a survey of residents that birds in three Sydney suburbs had mastered the novel foraging technique. In this 2019 photo provided by researcher Barbara Klump, a sulphur-crested cockatoo opens the lid of a trash can in Sydney, Australia. In early 2018, they found from a survey of residents that birds in three Sydney suburbs had mastered the novel foraging technique. Intrigued, Major teamed up with researchers in Germany to study how many cockatoos learned this trick.
It’s quite a feat for a bird to grasp a bin lid with its beak, pry it open, then shuffle far enough along the bin’s edge that the lid falls backward - revealing edible trash treasures inside. Not every resident would be thrilled, but ornithologist Richard Major was impressed by the ingenuity. WASHINGTON (AP) - A few years ago, a Sydney scientist noticed a sulfur-crested cockatoo opening his trash bin. This article was published (705 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
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