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Goffins Cockatoos Show Off Primate-Level Tool Skills By Playing Golf To Win Cashew

This footage shows Goffin’s cockatoos displaying their “primate level” tool-using skills by playing golf and choosing the correct hole for a cashew reward.

Antonio Jose Osuna Mascaro, from the Messerli Research Institute of the University of Veterinary Medicine in the Austrian capital Vienna, is studying the problem-solving skills of Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana), also known as the Tanimbar corella.

Goffin’s cockatoos are considered a particularly tool-loving bird, and they learn how to use new objects through exploration and play, just like humans.

One of the cockatoo, in a golf-inspired experiment shows how cockatoos invent the use of complex combined tools. (Veterinarmedizinische Universitat Wien/Newsflash)

Researchers said the birds have proven that they are at the primate level when it comes to using tools.

Osuna Mascaro said: “I wanted to design an experiment to test the extent to which these amazing creatures pay attention to simultaneous actions when using tools.

“I couldn’t easily mimic the way other tool users like chimpanzees crack nuts with rocks because cockatoos don’t have hands, so I had to come up with a task that allows movements that are more natural for these animals. The answer was in front of me on my way to the lab: a golf course!

Antonio Jose Osuna Mascaro, with the birds in the study. (Veterinarmedizinische Universitat Wien/Newsflash)

“A golf-like task would allow me to test the animals’ ability to perform combined tool actions.”

The task consisted of a green-carpeted platform housed in a box with a latticed front. Each side of the ‘green’ had a rectangular ‘hole’ with a trap door underneath.

During the experiment, one of these two trapdoors was baited with a cashew nut. In the front grille was a central hole through which a heavy white marble could be inserted into the centre of the green.

One of the cockatoo, in a golf-inspired experiment shows how cockatoos invent the use of complex combined tools. (Veterinarmedizinische Universitat Wien/Newsflash)

Using a stick positioned through the grate, the bird could push the ball into one of the holes on top of the trapdoor, releasing the cashew if chosen correctly.

Osuna Mascaro said: “Three of our cockatoos managed to use the stick in such a way that they could hit the ball into the right hole and get the reward, a real demonstration of tool innovation at a very high level.

“One of the most amazing aspects of the exercise was watching these animals each invent their own technique for grabbing the stick and hitting the ball, sometimes with amazing dexterity. One of the birds operated the stick by holding it between its upper and lower jaws, another between the tip of the beak and the tongue, and another with its claw, much like a primate.”

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