Trash cans have become a point of contention between cockatoos and humans in Sydney. The sulfur-crested cockatoos have developed a technique for opening the lids of barrels with their beaks and legs, as reported by a research team led by Barbara Klump of the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Konstanz. Because they spread garbage in the residential areas while sniffing, the residents try to keep the birds away with new tricks.
“Once a cockatoo opens a garbage can, other cockatoos will come and try to eat something tasty,” explains Klump in the journal Current Biology. “They really like bread.” It’s not known which resourceful bird came up with the idea first — but it’s clear that the behavior quickly found imitators: according to a 2018 resident survey, the trick was observed in only three areas. At the end of 2019, the birds were already fishing for food from garbage cans in 44 areas in this way.
Birds always followed with new ideas
However, the residents responded and came up with new methods to prevent the lids from opening. In a survey, 61 percent of the 170 or so participants said they had taken increasingly drastic measures over time — because the birds, in turn, kept coming up with new ideas. Rubber dummies of snakes placed on the trays soon ceased to deter the cockatoos, and even heavy objects such as rocks on the lids did not deter the birds from their target for long.
“Bricks seemed to work for a while, but the cockatoos got too smart,” says one interviewee. The birds lifted the obstacles with their heads or beaks over the edge of the lid and came loose again. “Not only do the cockatoos learn socially how to open trash cans, the local residents also socially learn how to protect their trash cans from the cockatoos,” explains Klump. “Residents come up with new protection methods themselves, but many learn them from their neighbors or people in their street, so they take inspiration from someone else.”
About two-thirds of those surveyed looked to their neighbors for orientation. It turned out to be similar in the case of the cockatoo, where barrier-breaking techniques also spread through the local population.
New measures seem to be working for the time being
The most recent – and still effective – human idea: shoes or plastic bottles are put in the two hinges so that the lids can no longer be opened. And just to be safe, some of those affected also attached heavy objects, such as filled water bottles, to the lids with zip ties. That seems to work – at least for now.
There are always similar races between wild animals and humans, Klump’s group explains. An example is elephants in Africa, which destroy fields and always overcome new protective measures, another macaque in Asia, which steals objects from people and returns them only for food.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
