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RNZ News
4 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
Sydney's sulphur-crested cockatoos spotted using drinking fountains
By Peter de Kruijff for ABC Sulphur-crested cockatoos line up to take a drink from a public fountain at a Sydney sporting reserve. Photo: Supplied / Royal Society Biology Letters First they opened bins, now crackles of Sydney's sulphur-crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita) have been recorded by scientists waiting their turn to use drinking fountains. The birds, which roost around the Western Sydney Parklands, have figured out how to operate twist-handled fountains, according to a new study. The behaviour was observed in a group of up to 200 birds, scientists report in The Royal Society Biology Letters . Study co-author Lucy Aplin, a behavioural and cognitive ecologist from the Australian National University, said it took coordinated actions for the birds to access water from the spring-loaded fountains. "It's just one of your bog-standard old-fashioned drinking fountains that you find all across sports fields in Australia," she said. "They [cockatoos] hold on to the stem and they twist with their foot but then they have to lean their weight while they twist as well. "They don't have the amount of strength that we have in our hand or the weight so they have to lean their whole body weight to keep it twisted." Dr Aplin said the whole process looked a "bit funny". "It's a bit of an awkward body position they have to hold, but it's pretty impressive," she said. Researchers captured cockatoos on video taking turns to use a drinking fountain. Photo: Supplied / Royal Society Biology Letters Sulphur-crested cockatoos are well known for their urban antics causing havoc on bin night in more than 60 suburbs in Sydney's south. But the population in Western Sydney is a different mob. After the study's lead author, the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior's Barbara Klump, saw the drinking behaviour first-hand, she set up a study to track the behaviour of cockatoos around a well-used drinking fountain. First, the researchers identified 24 individual birds by painting them with dots, then they used wildlife cameras to monitor attempts to use the fountains by these and other birds in the local area. Over 44 days, the cameras recorded 525 attempts and collectively the birds were successful 41 per cent of the time they tried to drink, with the marked birds being slightly more successful. Dr Aplin said about 70 percent of the local birds, which roosted close by, were using the drinking fountain. "They use them as a preferred place to drink no matter whether it's hot or if there's other water sources available," she said. All ages and sexes participated too, unlike with the bin-opening behaviour, which is mostly done by males. "Something about the bin opening requires strength, and that's why it's male-biased," Dr Aplin said. "[Drinking from fountains is] a very complex behaviour that requires lots of different fine scale motor actions, but not brute force." Sulphur-crested cockatoos have been documented opening bins in Sydney. Photo: Supplied / Barbara Klump/Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour Cockatoos are able to work out something tricky like turning a handle because they have brains that are relatively large for their bodies. Their forebrain, which deals with advanced cognitive abilities like tool use, is packed full of neurons, like chimpanzees, which also excel at complex problems. Alex Taylor, who studies biological intelligence at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, said it was clearly tricky to get a tap to work when you had the body of a bird. "Which explains why birds are only successful 50 per cent of the time when trying to use the tap," Dr Taylor, who was not involved with the research, said. "Still this is a pretty good success rate on a hot day when you are thirsty." Dr Taylor said the study raised the question of why only a single species was exploiting human water taps and not others. The exact reason the cockatoos use the fountain instead of other water sources like a lake or creek is not understood. But there are several hypotheses that researchers want to test. "One possibility is the water just tastes better," Dr Aplin said. That is a theory Irene Pepperberg, an animal behaviourist from Boston University who was not involved in the study, also thought was possible. "The birds are probably attracted to fountains as being a source of cleaner water than available ponds," she said. "The resource is unlimited, so it is probably worth it to keep trying until they figure out the successful behaviour and, if they fail, they seem to have other water sources. "The birds do seem to learn about the source from one another; whether they learn the specific technique from each other is a bit less clear." Photo: Supplied / Staglands Wildlife Reserve Another idea is the birds like how the fountains sit about one metre off the ground. Alice Auersperg, a cognitive biologist from the University of Veterinary Medicine who was not part of the study, said this was because drinking from a ground source was risky and left them exposed to predators. But she said another reason they might use the fountains was because the birds liked to undertake an activity even if there was no food reward. Dr Pepperberg said she recently did a study with umbrella cockatoos where 40 per cent of the time they chose to shell nuts rather than eat ones that were already shelled. The team behind the new research hopes to drill down into the reasons behind the behaviour as well as other cockatoo innovations in future studies. Dr Aplin said she had received other reports of cockatoos using water fountains with levers and unzipping bags to access lunch boxes. She encouraged people who saw these kinds of behaviour to report it through the Big City Birds App. Gisela Kaplan, an emeritus professor of animal behaviour from the University of New England, said several bird species seemed to exploit taps in the outback in different ways to cockatoos. "The moment [the taps] are used, the birds now fly in and take the drops that fall down and then, once the person has left, also lick out the last drops that are in the tap," Professor Kaplan, who was not involved with the study, said. She said she had witnessed a great bowerbird in Larrimah, Northern Territory, work with its beak at a tap nozzle attachment until water drops were generated. Dr Aplin said ultimately, there was an important message behind all these observed behaviours beyond just funny anecdotes. "Urban animals that are adaptable and have expressed behavioural flexibility and have large brains are going to try and use the habitats that we provide them with," she said. "So if we want to increase biodiversity in cities, we need to think about increasing the sort of habitat requirements for species that might not be so adaptable." On the other hand, Dr Aplin added, we could also use urban design to manage those species that are more adaptable. - ABC
The Guardian
4 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Cockatoos start sipping from Sydney's drinking fountains after mastering series of complex moves
Sulphur-crested cockatoos in Sydney have worked out how to operate drinking fountains, with footage showing the white birds gripping and turning the handle before leaning in for a sip. Researchers set up camera traps and recorded the birds taking turns at a drinking fountain in western Sydney. Scientists observed more than 500 attempts over 44 days and revealed the birds were successful about 46% of the time. 'The behaviour consists of a combination of actions involving both feet, bill and shifting body weight to start the water flow,' the researchers said in their paper. Dr John Martin, a senior ecologist at Ecosure and co-author of the study, said they stumbled on the complex behaviour at a twist-handle-operated bubbler located in a western Sydney sports field while surveying cockatoo foraging habits. 'So they would go and stand on it, and then they would have to grip the handle and actually push it forwards to activate it, and then lean over and have a drink.' Presumably the birds first learned what to do by watching people, Martin said. 'Eventually one of them got it, and then the others were like, 'ah, this is fun'.' The cockatoos learned by watching others and then trying themselves, he said. About 70% of the local population attempted the manoeuvre, according to the research, published in Biology Letters. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Drinking from the public fountain wasn't just out of necessity, he said, given there was a creek nearby, only 500 metres away. There seemed to be an element of fun, he said. 'The flock would come in, and they'd all be foraging and drinking – having a bit of a relax and a bit of a laugh.' The 'drinking fountain innovation' – which has persisted at least two years – is the second documented urban adaptation to spread across Sydney's sulphur-crested cockatoo populations. It followed the 'bin-opening innovation', where cockatoos figured out how to use their beaks and feet to lift rubbish bin lids, a behaviour that soon spread throughout Sydney's southern suburbs. Martin, also a co-author of that study, said birds used socially learned techniques specific to their cultural group. 'Birds in one area opened a bin in a certain way, and birds in another geographic area opened a bin in a different way.' Members of the public are encouraged to submit their own observations of sulphur-crested cockatoo innovation via the Big City Birds website and app. Cockatoos, a family of parrots, are known innovators, with dextrous toes that are capable of gripping. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Austrian research on Goffin's cockatoos, native to Indonesia, has observed birds dunking biscuits in water before eating them, and dipping their food in yoghurt to add flavour. The problem-solving behaviours are examples of rapid, widespread social learning that helps some species better adapt to city environments. Dr Holly Parsons, who manages the urban bird program at BirdLife Australia, said sulphur-crested cockatoos were big, loud and interactive birds and a common sight in Australian cities. 'They're smart, so they're able to exploit the urban environment to get the resources that they need, and that's one of the reasons why they're doing so well living with us.' The species was the fourth most commonly spotted bird nationally in BirdLife Australia's annual Aussie Bird Count. Parsons, who had seen cockatoos flipping bin lids, said she was not surprised they could learn to operate drinking fountains. There were even stories of pet cockatoos ending up in the wild and teaching other birds to speak, she said. 'It's just so fascinating to see how their brains are working and how they are learning from each other.'
