Our BICA Moment, specifically Ang Siew Siew’s posts, Tanimbar Corella (Cacatua goffini) using “tool” to access the flesh of a coconut LINK 1 and LINK 2 has now been published in a scientific journal:
Osuna-Mascaró, A.J., & Auersperg, A. M. I. (2018). On the brink of tool use? Could object combinations during foraging in a feral Goffin’s cockatoo (Cacatua goffiniana) result in tool innovations? Animal Behavior and Cognition, 5(2), 229–234 – a PDF of the paper can be obtained HERE.
An abstract of the paper is given below:
“In captivity, the Goffin’s cockatoo (Cacatua goffiniana) has shown the capacity for flexible tool use and manufacture to a degree that rivals some habitually tool using birds. Although these skills make it an important avian model species for studying physical cognition, there are no scientific records of this species using objects as tools in the wild. We hereby report a single observation of a feral individual, showing an object related foraging behavior not previously described. The bird directly and repeatedly combined plant material (alternating between stiff stalks and flimsy leaves) with the inside of a foraging source (open coconuts) in a continuous and very persistent way. Here we analyze the observation and discuss how a psychological motivation for combining objects, particularly with food sources, may represent a potential new path to the onset of avian tool use. We evaluate the possibility that this particular case may already represent tool use and highlight the theoretical importance of this finding to our present state of knowledge about the technical abilities of this species.”
Check out LINK 1 and LINK 2 to view the videos documented by Ang Siew Siew.
BESG congratulates Facebook: Birds, Insects N Creatures Of Asia for providing a platform for Ang Siew Siew as well as other bird photographers to post their observations and the authors for successfully publishing her observations.
YC Wee
Singapore
1st May 2018
This post is a cooperative effort between Birds, Insects N Creatures Of Asia and BESG to bring the study of birds and their behaviour through photography and videography to a wider audience.
