City cockatoos master drinking water like human

The sulfur crown cockatoos in western Western Sydney learned to design public drinking fountains for humans, developing a series of complex coordinated movements to obtain water.

The bird grabs the rubber spout of the fountain with one foot while using the other to rotate the bent bend clockwise, then lowers its weight to keep the valve open while drinking. This new urban innovation has been spreading among the local population for at least two years, and researchers have documented 525 attempts by smart parrots to master the fountain. Only 41% of the attempts were successful, highlighting this technological difficulty in non-adaptive urban life.

Needs complex orchestration

Operating a public drinking fountain requires precise coordination, even these highly intelligent birds can challenge. Papaya must place one foot on a twisted valve and the other on a rubber spout, and then use its weight to rotate the handle clockwise while preventing it from popping backwards.

The camera trap installed on a fountain within 44 days reveals the complex nature of this behavior. The researchers found that successful attempts require longer interactions and are better when fewer birds are present, suggesting that the task requires concentration and practice.

Birds show individual styles in their methods, and each small parrot develops a unique technique. However, successful attempts show significantly less variation in their action sequences compared to failed attempts, suggesting that one of the best methods is a method that birds gradually discover through trial and error.

Major findings about fountain use

• Success Rate: Only 41% of attempts result in successful access to water
• Population adoption: An estimated 70% of the local parrot population has tried this behavior
• Peak usage time: Dawn and dusk, matching natural drinking style
• Weather Dependence: Much less attempts on rainy days
• Personal Technology: Each bird has a personalized open strategy

Local cultural innovation

The innovation of the drinking fountain represents the second recorded cultural adaptation of the Sydney Crested Cavalry, whose famous trash-bin open behavior spread across dozens of suburbs. However, fountain technology shows different characteristics that reveal fascinating insights into how animals are cultivated.

Unlike male-dominated bin open behavior, the use of fountains did not show gender bias. Both male and female soybeans tried and succeeded at a similar rate, suggesting that such innovations may require different skills or have different benefits compared to foraging waste.

This behavior seems to be good within the local population, but has not yet spread beyond the housing range of 100-150 birds in a single habitat. Of the 10 drinking fountains identified in the area, five showed evidence of peak use through unique chewing markers on rubber components.

Why fountains don’t spread like garbage cans

The geographical expansion of fountains used is limited, in stark contrast to the innovation of bin’s openness, which jumps from suburbs in southern Sydney to suburbs. This difference may stem from changes in infrastructure, rather than learning limitations in birds.

Although household bins are nearly identical throughout Australia, public drinking fountains vary widely between local councils. The twisted handle design that Capotos mastered in western Western Sydney is different from the button fountain used elsewhere and requires completely different motor skills.

This insight reveals how urban infrastructure design promotes or limits the spread of animal innovation. Standardization of resources may be crucial for the dissemination of cultural behaviors.

Behavior complexity analysis

The researchers conducted a detailed analysis of 647 behavioral sequences, revealing the significant complexity of how cockatoos approached the fountain’s operation. The successful sequences contained 39 unique behavioral actions in 119 different combinations, while unsuccessful attempts involved 88 actions in 131 combinations.

This study measures entropy, complexity, and turbulence in the action sequence of birds and is commonly used to analyze human behavior patterns. Successful attempts showed lower entropy and less turbulence, suggesting that effective fountain operation required reduced unnecessary movement and maintained focused behavior patterns.

Single birds have developed signature methods, with sequences of the same individuals similar to each other, rather than sequences of different birds. This shows that individual learning plays an important role even in socially transmitted behaviors.

Time and environmental factors

The use of cockatoo’s fountain follows a clear bimodal pattern, which is consistent with natural drinking behaviors rather than human activity patterns during peak activities at 7:30 AM and 5:30 PM. This suggests that birds use fountains as legal water sources rather than simply engaging in playful exploration.

Surprisingly, the use of fountains is not driven by hot weather or lack of water. The researchers found no correlation between the maximum temperature per day and the fountain visit, suggesting that this is not an emergency behavior of obtaining water during drought.

The weather does affect usage patterns, and on rainy days, natural water sources will be much richer and have much less attempts to try. Although the sample size is too small to be statistically significant, weekend usage appears to be lower than working days.

This reveals what urban adaptation is

This fountain innovation adds to growing evidence that certain birds can rapidly develop new behaviors to capitalize on urban environments. Cockatoos joins a selection of urban innovators, including great tits that learned to pierce the top of a milk bottle and open the sugar bag Barbados Finches.

What makes the Cockatoo case particularly outstanding is that within the same species and geographical area, there are not one but two complex innovations. This shows that urban environments can indeed promote innovation by putting animals in novel challenges and opportunities.

For at least two years, the persistence of behavior has shown that it has become a stable cultural tradition rather than a temporary fashion. High participation rates in the local population suggest successful social communication skills with demanding skills.

Impact on urban wildlife management

Understanding how animals adapt to urban infrastructure has a practical impact on urban planning and wildlife management. The Fountain Study reveals that seemingly small design differences can determine whether innovations spread or remain localized.

Cockatoos in particular, this study has increased their reputation as urban problem solvers. Although their bin open behavior often causes them to conflict with humans, the use of fountains represents a benign adaptation that does not damage characteristics or cause confusion.

These findings also underline the importance of considering wildlife when designing public infrastructure. It seems that functions that work for humans may become an important resource for urban adaptation species in unexpected ways.

As cities continue to expand globally, recording and understanding these behavioral innovations are becoming increasingly important in predicting how wildlife will respond to urban environments and designing cities that can meet human needs and animals adapt.

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