Innovative Cockatoo Stuns Scientists By Making Its Own Tools---- Amazing!!

Here’s how the team witnessed Figaro’s new skill, according to Auersperg:

“During our daily observation protocols, Figaro was playing with a small stone. At some point he inserted the pebble through the cage mesh, and it fell just outside his reach. After some unsuccessful attempts to reach it with his claw, he fetched a small stick and started fishing for his toy.

“To investigate this further we later placed a nut where the pebble had been and started to film. To our astonishment he did not go on searching for a stick but started biting a large splinter out of the aviary beam. He cut it when it was just the appropriate size and shape to serve as a raking tool to obtain the nut.

“It was already a surprise to see him use a tool, but we certainly did not expect him to make one by himself. From that time on, Figaro was successful on obtaining the nut every single time we placed it there, nearly each time making new tools. On one attempt he used an alternative solution, breaking a side arm off a branch and modifying the leftover piece to the appropriate size for raking.”

[link to www.youtube.com]


Oxford University professor Alex Kacelnik said that Figaro is the only known one in his species to exhibit such tool-making capabilities, but crows have been observed to do similar things. Kacelnik said a crow named Betty made hooks out of wire to obtain food out of reach.

Still, Kacelnik said researchers are “struggling to identify the cognitive operations that make these deeds possible.”

With observations from these birds, Kacelnik hopes it may help scientists “unlock many unknowns in the evolution of intelligence.”

seen crows fashion digging sticks to get at tree grubs.

watched one bully the one who made it till he got a turn also.

Borrowed this story from The Blaze.

Amazing and Adorable little Cockatoo..

Nice to see something not so heavy in content

Impressive, never seen anything like that unless it was a monkey. Maybe the smartest bird alive?

Too bad you didn't video that!!

Guess I've never stared at them long enough.

Funny thing is, this would already be common knowledge, and many other astounding things about animal intelligence, if the entire scientific inquiry hadn't been held back for decades by religious extremists who can't deal with the fact that humans aren't the only thinking animal.

Someone on The Blaze left this comment which I thought was HILARIOUS


If a bird with a “Bird Brain” can learn to make something so it can eat and survive, why can’t can’t Liberals? Maybe we need to let the Cackatoo teach the liberals a thing or two.

Would someone be kind enough to embed?

I don't know how ~

Really.. I've never heard that assertion before.

This shouldn't just apply to liberals but to everyone!

I know it gives me hope

Darwin's theories are flawed by modern standards, and even a modern scientific understanding of evolution is far more refined. But one of the greatest controversies of his time was putting animals on a level playing field with humans in terms of biological significance.

Animal behaviorists before Darwin, and many after, even to this day, believe animals to be simple atomatons of instinctual reactions, instead of actual thinking, reasoning creatures like us.

Considering an animal to be capable of thought and reason was considered blasphemous and in direct contradiction with the Bible, especially in the time of Darwin. All scientific studies suggesting other animals are capable of things the Bible says only Man should be able to do were met with rejection or outright hostility.

It wasn't until as recently as the 1960s when it became acceptable (to most) that animal brains function the same as human ones, albeit to generally lesser degrees of complexity.

Bumping to keep this around for a little while.

Great diversion for a few minutes.

Bump for the simple things in life

wtf else do you expect from an australian :grin:

Thank you for sharing that!
Having 4 Yorkies .. I know that they can be master manipulators.

And thanks for understanding, I'm not trying to point fingers, but the biggest challenge humankind has had to face in learning about the world around us is swallowing our egos. Its good to see other species being recognised for their cleverness.

You have Yorkies, you know they're clever, and yet a lot of the scientific community still denies cats and dogs demonstrate observational learning (ie., learning to do something from watching someone else do it). I've seen cats teach eachother to use the toilet. That's better than some humans.

I have an African Grey Parrot, so this discovery does not surprise me at all. If anything, it makes me wonder where these scientists have been all these years that they would be stunned by what most parrot owners have known forever.

I saw this the other day and loved it.

That thought crossed my mind as well.

Does your parrot talk?

Last Edited by Angelic_Warrior on 11/08/2012 07:53 PM

This might be something we want to add to our prepper list.

They may come in handy and don't eat much.

Yes, she talks, but she's not a big talker. Her vocabulary is not as large as some African Greys.

It's her antics that show how truly intelligent she is.

She plays with children's toys, because bird toys are not challenging enough for her.

She has a Peek-a-Boo Park crib toy in her cage. She turns the crank, slides the windows back and forth, and pushes the buttons. (There are a number of buttons in different shapes and colors. e.g. If the yellow circle button is pushed, an automated voice will say "yellow circle".)

If I say "push red square", my parrot will push the red square button. If I "push yellow circle", she will push the yellow circle button. She knows her shapes and colors.

She also has a concept of numbers. If I say I'm going to give her three grapes and only give her two, she will pitch a fit until she gets the third one.

As another parrot 'owner' I know what you mean. Where have the scientists been all these years? They were too busy torturing animals in their labs to notice much I guess.

I love you putting the word owner in quotes. It's so true. My parrot owns me.

Oh yes! I so agree with you. It is time to wake up. However they don't what the ethical ramifications that come with admitting this. If this bird thinks, and feels emotions, what right do we have to make it a prisoner in a cage when it should be flying free?

Same with all animals. What right do we have to experiment on them? Only by saying they don't think, feel or have emotions similar to us, can they justify it. Anyone who has had an animal friend knows that is crap.

That is so cool!!

I buy toddler toys also.. the interactive kind or plushies you squeeze to make noise. Only 1 of my Yorkies shows much interest. He is one of the younger ones and figures out how to "make it work" immediately.

If I had the room .. I would love a big bird

This is a horrible story, but it shows how cunning my African Gray is. It was a display of complex strategic thinking on her part that even took me by surprise.

It occurred thirty years ago when we first got her. At the time, we had two dogs, a male German Shepherd and a female Labrador Retriever. Our Lab was a harmless and gentle dog, but our German Shepherd had more aggressive tendencies.

When we first brought the parrot home, our German Shepherd was looking at her the way a wolf looks at a lamb. So much so, that I wondered if I had made a mistake bringing a bird into our home. I feared that he would harm her if he got the chance and decided that she would need to be closely supervised at all times when outside her cage.

He kept looking at her with those hungry wolf eyes, and the parrot kept looking at him right back. The only one who was oblivious to what was going on was the Lab.

One day the parrot was out on her perch on top of her cage staring down at the German Shepherd. He was nearby still staring at her like he thought she was a dog biscuit, and the Lab was standing on the other side of the room with her back to everyone.

Suddenly, the parrot swooped down, glided across the room, landed right on the Lab's hindquarters, and bit her hard on the ass. Our Lab yelped loudly in surprise and kept shrieking like someone was trying to kill her. I bolted across the room to retrieve the bird, but she flew back to her perch for about one second. Then she immediately flew off her perch again and began swooping back and forth in the air above the German Shepherd.

By this time, our German Shepherd's attitude had completely flip flopped, and he was scrambling around in fear trying to escape the swooping terror above him. Meanwhile, I was running around the room like a maniac trying to diffuse the situation. After a couple more swoops, the parrot flew back to her perch and stayed there and allowed me to put her back in her cage. Then she looked at the German Shepherd again, and this time he did not look at her like he thought she was prey. Instead, he averted his gaze and trembled.

The parrot never attacked the dogs again, but then again, our German Shepherd never looked at the bird the same way again after that.

I truly believe that our bird recognized that the German Shepherd was a potential threat that she needed to nip in the bud. I think she also realized that attacking him would be too dangerous, so she made an example out of our poor sweet-natured Lab instead. She attacked the other dog right in front of him, but only after our Lab had strayed to the other side of the room a good distance away from him.

I think the parrot waited until the conditions were perfect to make her move. I think our Lab was used as a pawn in the bird's power play, and I believe the entire objective behind the bird's attack was to get the German Shepherd to back down.

I think our parrot knew exactly what she was doing. She correctly assessed the situation and devised a strategy like a little General to solve the problem, and it worked.

what kept birds from ruling us is that they don't have hands...