Austrian researchers havefaced with two of the most intelligent birds in the world: thekea(Nestor sizeable), an olive-green parrot from New Zealand, and theNew Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides). The results show how they are able to solve problems and even innovate.
Parrots and corvids – a family of which rooks, crows and magpies are a part – never cease to amaze scientists when it comes to their intelligence and ability.ability to solve problems of a technical nature. The New Caledonian crow, for example, uses elongated objects, such as a stick, as tools to extract larvae from inside the bark of trees and dead wood. The kea also has a special talent for using objects from their natural environment to obtain food.
In collaboration with scientists from the University of Oxford (United Kingdom), researchers from the University of Vienna (Austria) used a multi-access box in a transparent Plexiglas cube to compare the cognitive mechanisms of six keas and five New Caledonian crows. So they evaluatedhow the birds managed to get the reward, a food placed on a platform placed in the center of the box. To make the reward fall from its platform, the animals could choose between pulling a string attached to the reward, moving a hook-shaped crank to open a window, inserting a marble (compact tool) down a curved track that led to the reward, or insert a stick through an opening and maneuver it over a hole. Once the birds had opted for a solution and had applied it several times, they covered the corresponding entrance, forcing them to look for another alternative. “In this way we were able to observe not only the differences in terms of the order of the solutions chosen by the animals, but also the speed with which they were able to find another option”, explains Gyula Gajdon, co-author of the work.
Thus, they found that what was most difficult for the kea was to use an elongated-shaped object as a tool, since this bird does not use stick-shaped objects in nature. On the contrary, the most difficult thing for the raven was to open a window by pulling a hook-shaped crank, because it is not usual for it to stretch or tear objects.One animal of each species used all four strategies to reach food, as revealed by scientists inPLoS ONE.
