source: ox.ac.uk

This experiment was jointly conducted through a collaboration of researchers from veterinary universities located in Vienna, Austria and Oxford University who devised a box in which food was placed inside a container that is signified with blue squares and an empty box designated with red circles. The purpose of the experiment was to see if the parrot could create a tool that would open the box with the food inside after identifying which box the food was located in!

First of all, what would the cockatoo do if only one thin wooden board was placed in the vicinity? By the way, the parrot species is a white parrot called “Goffin Parrot” in Indonesia and is also known as a cockatoo.

source: YouTube

Wow! The cockatoo uses his powerful beak to break the wooden board into a thin stick that can touch the blue button and release the food!

source: YouTube

The bird manipulates the thin wooden stick and successfully releases the food!

source: YouTube

Next, a tree branch with leaves was placed near the box.

source: YouTube

The cockatoo quickly teach the branch down into a stick that can activate the box and release the food! Amazing!

source: YouTube

The branch was a little too short at first but the bird compensated and was successful again!

source: YouTube

The third observation placed a piece of corrugated cardboard for the cockatoo to engineer a solution to obtain the food.

source: YouTube

Here is the cockatoo tearing up the cardboard and creates a tool Parrots do not move even with such cardboard. I started crushing cardboard little by little while supporting the cardboard with my legs. It’s messy dexterity!

source: YouTube

The clever bird then uses the tool to open the box and obtain the food!

source: YouTube

It is surprising to see the dexterity of the cockatoo in using their legs and mouths to manipulate the tool to obtain the food. Also, cockatoos have an excellent sense of smell so this bird could identify where the food was!

Please take a look and watch the extended video below.

See Video Here

source: YouTube

What did you think?

I believe that parrots and cockatoos may have personally had a negative stereotype in the past as mindless imitators of human speech but this experiment clearly that these birds are extremely intelligent and can utilize sophisticated experimental animation techniques to solve problems!