Male palm cockatoos, like teenage Romeos carrying guitar cases covered in stickers, demonstrate that serenading a crush with a love song is not just about music, but also about style.
Cognitive biologist Alice Auersperg from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, who was not involved in the research, explains that adding unique touches to their instruments is not a repetitive behavior in every animal. She states, ”There is an element of innovation to it.”
If humans were birds, we might resemble parrots. Similar to us and our primate relatives, parrots possess large, intelligent brains, intricate social lives, and extended childhoods dedicated to learning from their parents.
Unlike primates, most parrots do not use tools in the wild. Auersperg points out that “most parrots that have been observed using tools have been studied in captivity.” For example, her team discovered that Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana) caught from the wild and temporarily housed in a research aviary exhibited advanced tool usage for foraging (SN: 2/10/23).
2023-09-12 18:01:00
Original from www.sciencenews.org