Posted on 09/14/2022 1:21:50 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Residents in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, are in the midst of an escalating feud with a neighboring population of wild sulphur-crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita) over an unlikely prize: household trash. While this conflict may sound comical, researchers report that it shows all the signs of an "innovation arms race," in which two species become trapped in a cycle of behavioral changes as they continually try to one-up or outthink one another.
The sharp-witted cockatoos have earned the unflattering nickname "trash parrots" after learning to open up flip-top garbage bins to pillage their contents. In 2018, videos shared online showed the resourceful birds grabbing onto the rims of bin lids with their beaks or feet, shimmying down toward the hinge and eventually flipping the plastic covers entirely off the containers. After watching the footage, researchers investigated the behavior and found that the cockatoos were working out how to open the bins by observing one another, which is known as social learning.
Since then, local residents have deployed numerous countermeasures — including bricks, sticks, locks and even rubber snakes — to prevent the cunning cockatoos from inadvertently covering the streets in trash. However, not all these countermeasures have proven to be effective at outwitting the cockatoos, who continue to outsmart the humans and break into bins where they can.
These countermeasures ranged from simple solutions, such as weighing down the lid with bricks or water bottles, to more ingenious ideas... However, the major limitation of all these countermeasures is that bin collectors must be able to easily remove the lid in order to collect the trash inside.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
These birds fetch 100’s of dollars alive in the U.S.
They are very smart birds........................
Sounds like they’re the raccoons of down under.
They must be kin to squirrels and raccoons.
Nuisances, all.
The birds will go somewhere else...like your neighbors garbage.
https://youtu.be/l8NOR1L1-sg
Their intelligence is (essentially) that of a 5 year old human.
>> Only throw inedible items in the bins. <<
The problem is all the stuff that isn’t edible but smells edible: meat diapers, pizza boxes, peanut-butter jars, condiment bottles. Most non-recyclable household trash smells like food if you’re trash panda.
Plenty of cockatoo videos on youtube. They are smart! Also, friendly and loud.
Target. Rich. Environment.
“Their intelligence is (essentially) that of a 5 year old human.”
Crickey, that is just a wee bit more than the average democrat
Imagine if those flocks were in the US, and all trained to say FJB!
I have one, used to have 2 of them. They are well known as escape artists, they learn how to manipulate locks and latches quickly.
>> Imagine if those flocks were in the US, and all trained to say FJB! <<
That’s exactly what the Left thinks of “Fox News viewers” and “MAGA types”
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