A few years ago, biologists were amused and residents of Sydney, Australia, unenthused to find out that the city’s local cockatoos had figured out how to bust open trash cans in order to eat scraps of food left inside. They often left a mess behind. Now it seems the large, crested birds would like a drink to wash down their meal. So they taught themselves how to use drinking fountains. “Of course, a million questions went through my mind,” scientist Barbara Klump told The New York Times. “(Like) how the hell did it figure that out?” Klump set up cameras to catch the cockatoos in the act. She published a study on the thirsty birds in the journal Biology Letters. Over a 44-day period, she recorded a colony of 150 cockatoos. The birds visited one drinking fountain over 500 times. Using one claw to turn the handle and the other to hold the spout, the birds were able to produce a stream of water. They then dipped their beaks in for a cool sip. There is no shortage of fresh water in the nature preserve where the cockatoos live, Klump notes. So the birds may have a reason for using the fountains other than just drinking. “If there is no super urgent need and you’re not dying of thirst, then why not do something you enjoy?” Klump speculated. She added that it’s likely the birds learned how to use the fountains through observation and trial and error. They likely watched humans who successfully used the fountains. Their creativity has biologists eager to learn more about how cockatoos think. “I’d love to learn more about what else they have up their sleeves,” Klump said. Reflect: What’s something clever or unexpected you’ve seen an animal figure out on their own, and how did it make you feel? Gif of cockatoo from GIPHY.
