Need a locksmith? Call a cockatoo instead. One of the parrots in an experiment proved capable of picking a series of locks with no prior training.
Alex Kacelnik and colleagues at the University of Oxford set a number of cockatoos a challenge: pick a lock to access a nut visible behind a transparent door. The birds had to remove a pin, followed by a screw and a bolt, before turning a wheel to release a latch (see video, above).
Five birds were successful after some guidance, or with practice, but one of the cockatoos – called Pipin – broke in unassisted in under 2 hours. It was also the only bird to remove the screw with its foot instead of its beak.
"Some birds excel at different tasks," says Kacelnik. "Pipin is an ace at solving locks whereas another bird at the lab is good at making tools."
To test whether the birds had simply memorised a sequence of tasks, or whether they had a physical understanding of each device, the team altered the set-up by breaking, removing or re-ordering some of the locks, as shown in the video.
This did not stump the birds, suggesting that they are aware of how objects act on each other, says Kacelnik. It also shows that the parrots do not need to be rewarded every step of the way to solve a problem.
Secrets of success
The secret to the cockatoos' success seems to be the way in which they tackled the task, by using touch extensively to explore the working of the locks. Rather than simply using vision, physical manipulation involving tongue and beak, characteristic of parrots, was a great advantage. "It allows them to discover the effect of their actions which you can't do with sight alone," says Kacelnik.
Intense exploration, learning from consequences and goal-directed behaviour may be key to cracking these kinds of problems, according to Kacelnik's team, although further research will be needed to better understand the processes at work.
Journal reference: PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0068979
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