A cockatoo（风头鹦鹉） from a species not known to use tools in the wild has been observed spontaneously making and using tools for reaching food and other objects. A Goffin's cockatoo called 'Figaro', that has been reared in captivity¹ and lives near Vienna, used his powerful beak² to cut long splinters（碎片） out of wooden beams in its aviary³（鸟舍）, or twigs⁴ out of a branch, to reach and rake in objects out of its reach. Researchers from the Universities of Oxford⁵ and Vienna filmed Figaro making and using these tools.

 

How the bird discovered how to make and use tools is unclear but shows how much we still don't understand about the evolution of innovative⁶ behaviour and intelligence.

 

A report of the research is published this week in Current Biology and an accompanying video showing the behaviour is available here: http://www.zoo.ox.ac.uk/group/kacelnik/movie_figaro_for_media.mov

 

Dr Alice Auersperg of the University of Vienna, who led the study, said: 'During our daily observation protocols⁷, Figaro was playing with a small stone. At some point he inserted the pebble⁸ through the cage mesh⁹, 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 astonishment¹⁰ 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 leftover¹¹（残余的） piece to the appropriate size for raking.'

 

Professor Alex Kacelnik of Oxford University, an author of the study, said: 'Figaro shows us that, even when they are not habitual¹² tool-users, members of a species that are curious, good problem-solvers, and large-brained, can sculpt¹³ tools out of a shapeless source material to fulfil a novel need.

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