Sulphur-crested cockatoos raiding wheelie bins are (annoying) examples of animal behavioural adaptation
Submitted by Chickowee on 01 Sep 2019.
The sulphur-crested cockatoo has recently attracted international attention — and its own moniker — the "jerk bird".
It's all thanks to its bin-day behaviour: one cockie stands to the side of a bin, lifts the lid then inches along the side of the bin, holding the lid in its beak or foot until it's finally able to flip the lid back.
From there the cockie melodramatically throws tin foil and plastics, biscuit boxes and roast chicken bags up and out of the bin while other individuals wait around and rip everything apart.
It makes a heck of a mess, but these behaviours, seen by some as pesky, might actually be an example of animal technical innovation and cultural transmission that's new to science.
They could be so significant that a team of researchers from Germany have been spending months in Sydney's suburbs studying the sulphur-crested larrikins.
Read the full story at the ABC News website.
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