Jeudi 22 juillet 2021 Un cacatoès à huppe jaune ouvre une poubelle à Sydney en Australie, sur une photo transmise à l AFP le 20 juillet 2021 - Barbara Klump (Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior/AFP)
L être humain, pour acquérir de nouvelles compétences, s inspire souvent de modèles plus expérimentés, à l instar des enfants qui observent et reproduisent les gestes de leurs aînés, ou des sportifs amateurs qui analysent le jeu de jambes des champions pour les imiter.
Cette méthode éprouvée fonctionne aussi chez les cacatoès, selon une étude publiée jeudi dans la revue Science, qui se penche sur les poubelles de Sydney pour documenter un exemple d apprentissage social dans le règne animal.
Channel3000.com
July 22, 2021 6:22 PM CHRISTINA LARSON
AP Science Writer
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Barbara Klump
In this 2019 photo provided by researcher Barbara Klump, a sulphur-crested cockatoo lifts the lid of a trash can while several others watch in Sydney, Australia. At the beginning of 2018, researchers received reports from a survey of residents that birds in three Sydney suburbs had mastered the novel foraging technique. By the end of 2019, birds were lifting bins in 44 suburbs.
Barbara Klump
In this 2019 photo provided by researcher Barbara Klump, a sulphur-crested cockatoo opens the lid of a trash can in Sydney, Australia. At the beginning of 2018, researchers received reports from a survey of residents that birds in three Sydney suburbs had mastered the novel foraging technique. By the end of 2019, birds were lifting bins in 44 suburbs.
Australia s cockatoos taught each other to open trash cans for food, study finds
By
Jessie Yeung, CNN
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(CNN) A few years ago, Australian scientist Richard Major took a video of a cockatoo in Sydney opening a closed trash bin lid with its beak and foot to access the gold mine of leftover food inside.
He shared it with Barbara Klump and Lucy Aplin, both researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany and they were immediately fascinated. It was so exciting to observe such an ingenious and innovative way to access a food resource, we knew immediately that we had to systematically study this unique foraging behavior, said Klump, a postdoctoral research fellow at the institute in a news release.
Not all cockatoos succeeded in opening them, but she took around 160 videos of victorious efforts.
Analysing the footage, Dr Klump realised the vast majority of birds opening bins were males, which tend to be larger than females. The birds that mastered the trick also tended to be dominant in social hierarchies. This suggests that if you re more socially connected, you have more opportunities to observe and acquire new behaviour â and also to spread it, she said.
Cockatoos are extremely gregarious birds that forage in small groups, roost in large ones, and are rarely seen alone in Sydney.
While many animals have declined with the expansion of Australian cities, these bold and flamboyant birds generally have thrived.
Christina Larson14:32, Jul 23 2021
Barbara Klump/Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
In this 2019 photo provided by researcher Barbara Klump, a sulphur-crested cockatoo opens the lid of a rubbish bin in Sydney, Australia.
A few years ago, a Sydney scientist noticed a sulfur-crested cockatoo opening his rubbish bin. Not every resident would be thrilled, but ornithologist Richard Major was impressed by the ingenuity. It’s quite a feat for a bird to grasp a bin lid with its beak, pry it open, then shuffle far enough along the bin s edge that the lid falls backward – revealing edible trash treasures inside. Intrigued, Major teamed up with researchers in Germany to study how many cockatoos learned this trick. In early 2018, they found from a survey of residents that birds in three Sydney suburbs had mastered the novel foraging technique. By the end of 2019, birds were lifting bin lids in 44 suburbs.