Suphur-crested cockatoos in Australia are known to scavenge food from trash bins. Recently, animal behavior researchers discovered that the techniques that the cockatoos use to lift the lids of the trash bins are actually learned behavior that spread through social learning.
In late 2018, the researchers noted that a cockatoo in northern Sydney invented a distinct way to lift open the lid of the garbage bin, and that behavior was copied by birds in neighboring districts.
"We observed that the birds do not open the garbage bins in the same way, but rather used different opening techniques in different suburbs, suggesting that the behavior is learned by observing others," said Barbara Klump of Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior.
Image: MPI of Animal Behavior / B. Klump
A suphur-crested cockatoo opening the lid of a trash bin while another bird was watching it.
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