Australia's Got Trash Can Cockatoos
Wild cockatoos have figured out how to open garbage can lids, and the practice is spreading due to social learning.
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00:00 Cockatoos in Australia have learned how to open residential garbage cans so they can
00:09 loot the leftovers, according to a new study in the journal Science.
00:13 And now, citizen scientist reports of these birds reveal that in a remarkable feat of
00:19 cultural learning, other cockatoos have adopted this skill as their own.
00:24 The project started when a researcher shared a video of a wild cockatoo opening a residential
00:30 garbage can lid with its beak and feet.
00:33 Sulphur-crested cockatoos are native to eastern Australia, but they're not your typical
00:37 bird brain.
00:39 Instead, these parrots have large brains, long lifespans, and a highly social life.
00:46 Intrigued by the video, and wondering whether this garbage can opening behavior was learned
00:51 or genetic, researchers in Germany and Australia teamed up.
00:55 They did an online survey of people in eastern Australia, including the Sydney area, asking
01:01 for reports of cockatoos opening residential trash can lids.
01:04 The team received 338 reports from 44 suburbs describing cockatoos opening garbage can lids.
01:12 In 93% of those reports, multiple cockatoos were observed, highlighting the ample opportunities
01:18 for birds to observe bin opening, the researchers wrote in the study.
01:23 Using a map-based analysis, the team learned that once a cockatoo began opening garbage
01:28 cans, the practice spread faster to cockatoos in neighboring areas than to those in faraway
01:34 districts, suggesting that the behavior was socially learned.
01:38 What's more, birds in different areas use different techniques to open the garbage cans.
01:43 According to study lead researcher Barbara Klump, a postdoctoral research fellow at the
01:48 Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany, "We observed that the birds do not
01:54 open the garbage bins in the same way, but rather use different opening techniques in
01:58 different suburbs, suggesting that the behavior is learned by observing others."
02:04 A further analysis revealed that garbage can lids were opened by both juvenile and adult
02:09 cockatoos, and that male cockatoos were more likely to try opening the lids than females
02:14 were.
02:15 But once a lid was opened, several birds would often join in for the trashy feast.
02:20 As for why males tend to do the heavy lifting, it's possible that they have an advantage
02:25 because males tend to be heavier and more dominant, and they may also be stronger than
02:30 female cockatoos.
02:31 So, if you live in eastern Australia and see a bird opening your bin, take a video or picture
02:38 - you just might be helping scientific research!
02:41 And we on the internet would like to see the footage!
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