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GENIUS COCKATOOS USE TOOLSETS TO COMPLETE TASKS LIKE LITTLE, FEATHERY HANDYPEOPLE
BBC Science Focus
|March 2023
It is as yet unclear how many sugars they take in their tea
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Goffin's cockatoos can carry around multiple tools to allow them to complete complex tasks, researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna have found. The behaviour has previously only been observed in chimpanzees.
Hailing from the Tanimbar Islands in Indonesia, Goffin's cockatoos are small birds that belong to the parrot family. Previous studies have shown that they are highly intelligent and capable of not only using a variety of different tools to gather food, but are also able to make them.
To test whether the cockatoos were able to use different tools in combination, the team set them a task inspired by the termite fishing Goualougo Triangle chimpanzees of northern Congo - the only non-human animal known to use toolsets.
This story is from the March 2023 edition of BBC Science Focus.
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