Scientists have taught cockatoos to play ‘golf’ in a recent study published in Scientific Reports.
Using more than one tool simultaneously to achieve an end has played a significant role in the development of human technology.
Typically, it depends on a number of specific and often complex spatial relations and there are thus very few reported cases in non-human animals for example, specific nut-cracking techniques in chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys.
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The innovative strategies underlying the innovation and spread of tool manufacture and associative tool use across tool using animals is an important milestone towards a better understanding of the evolution of human technology.
In this study, scientists tested Goffin’s cockatoos on a composite tool problem, the ‘Golf Club Task’, that requires the use of two objects in combination (one used to control the free movement of a second) to get a reward.
Why are these 3 styles important? Because the way these cockatoos use tools is much more similar to ours than that of the New Caledonian crows
Here you can see Figaro and Fini solving it, each with their own peculiar and particular style. pic.twitter.com/VUk6ksXW28
— Tay (@BioTay) February 8, 2022
Goffin’s cockatoos are ideal non-primate models to study the origins of complex tool innovations. Despite not being dependent on tool obtained resources in the wild, in captivity they have proven to be highly capable of innovating solutions to physical problems using tools.
The flexible approach to tool-related problems both in captivity as well as in the wild suggests that this species’ tool use behaviour is largely innovative.
“This suggests that the birds were able to immediately identify and memorize the necessary steps upon their initial success,” the researchers explained in their paper, “a pattern that is inconsistent with typical associative learning progressions yet strongly consistent with previous Goffin problem-solving performances.”
Extra: Pipin’s technique (previously left out because of a limit on Twitter videos).
Pipin is unique in the group (he is a former alpha, but he is one of those charismatic alphas that F. de Waal tells us about in his talks), he inserts tools using his legs pic.twitter.com/SjbXADAhA7
— Tay (@BioTay) February 8, 2022
“One of the most amazing aspects of the process was to observe how these animals each invented their own individual technique in how to grip the stick and hit the ball, sometimes with astonishing dexterity,” said first author biologist Antonio Osuna-Mascaró from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna.
“While this study is the first to show that cockatoos can coordinate tools to solve a problem, it also feeds into our ongoing work with children,” said University of Birmingham developmental psychologist Sarah Beck.
“Comparing such different species helps us understand how humans and some other species develop impressive technological skills.”
(With inputs from agencies)
