Innovative tool use and problem solving in a parrot

The Goffin`s cockatoo is a parrot with the extraordinary ability to innovatively manufacture and use tools from different materials and for different purposes in captivity . This is particularly surprising given that tool use is not an innate trait that occurs on a population-wide level in this species. Furthermore this parrot lacks two behavioural predispositions that have been suggested to have promoted the onset of tool use in birds, namely nest building and food caching. To acquire and integrated understanding of the Goffins tool using capacities we adopt an approach with four different levels of analysis: evolution, development, phylogeny and mechanisms. The first work package (WP1) evaluates the hypothesis that the Goffins technical innovativeness is driven by extreme opportunism. We thus propose to study our models feeding ecology and extractive foraging techniques in its natural habitat (Tanimbar, Indonesia) as well as on an introduced population (Singapore). We will sample their food sources, record their foraging techniques (using state-of-the art procedures) and analyze food plant abundances in focal areas. WP2 addresses the Goffins cognitive development in the technical domain throughout their juvenile period, placing our model into a comparative framework with other species. Research on the cognitive abilities of animals often focuses on explaining newly discovered abilities on the respective animals current environmental challenges while ignoring the possibility that the behaviour may have already existed in their last common ancestor with its closest relatives. We thus plan to compare flexibility and tool using skills within the Goffins closest relatives (the corella cockatoos) using a Multi Task Approach (WP3). We will additionally test wild Goffins on our field site on the same task to determine possible effects of an enculturated environment on their abilities. WP4 represents the largest and most significant part of this project. It addresses perceptional and cognitive mechanisms underlying tool use in our study species. We plan to look their visual field and details of their skull/beak features to determine how the animals can handle a stick tool in a directed manner while lacking a straight beak. We further want to look at our animals perception of the relationship between the shape of their tool and a corresponding opening using fitting tasks. The Goffins show the capacity for various types of innovative tool manufacture rivalling even specialized tool makers. We thus plan to confront subjects with a tool making tasks involving several successive steps to craft tools for specific functions from different materials. Future planning in birds is still limited to food caching species and it is yet unclear whether innate caching habits are a prerequisite for these abilities. We thus finally aim to test future planning of tool use in the Goffin.