Golfing cockatoos reveal ability to use combined tools

Credit: Goffin Lab - Cockatoos have shown an extraordinary ability to complete a task by combining simple tools, demonstrating that this cognitive ability is not found only in primates. According to researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, the University of Birmingham, and the University of Vienna , the findings could shed new light on how our ancestors evolved the ability to design and use tools. The research, published in Scientific Reports , is also part of a wider international and interdisciplinary project comparing children's innovation and problem solving skills with those of cockatoos. Tool use is rare in animals, and particularly compound tools where two elements are fixed together, such as a spear, or an axe, or composite tools, where two items - for example a stick and a rock - are used together. These types of tools have evolved into recreational activities, such as hockey, cricket or golf, and it was this that inspired the study design. In their experiment, the team devised a game of golf for one species of bird, the Goffin's cockatoo, which is known for its problem solving skills and its ability to use single tools such as sticks to open up nut and seed shells. The birds had to manipulate a ball through a hole into a closed box, and then use a stick to push the ball to one side of the box where it triggers a trapdoor mechanism.