New discovery: Parrots also know how to create and use tools

In the wild, parrots do not know how to use tools, but scientists say they have observed a cockatoo locked in a cage using a stick to tease food out of its reach. , the parrot is named Figaro.

Figaro was discovered while 'playing' with a pebble in a bird farm where he lived in a research facility near Vienna, and at the time he dropped the stone outside the net surrounding the cage.

When it is impossible to reach the gravel with a beak or claw, Figaro has grabbed a small stick to 'hook' the stone, the researchers say.

'To continue checking this, then we replaced the gravel with a nut and started filming' , Alice Auersperg of Vienna University said: "To our surprise, it doesn't go finding a stick but starting to bite a large piece from the barn of the aviary. Figaro cut the soap as it had the right size and shape to serve as a scraping tool to get a nut. saw the bird use a tool, but we certainly did not expect it to create an instrument '.

Auersperg tells Figaro to successfully get nuts every time they put them out of their reach. And most of the time, it creates a new tool or fixes an old one for a more appropriate shape and size to get nuts.

The researchers say it is unclear how Figaro learned to 'invent' the device, but they believe that their observations show that species with large brain sizes can solve the problem. , can be able to create and use tools naturally even if they do not do so often.

Researcher Alex Kacelnik of Oxford University said: " Figaro is alone among species and in parrots showing this ability, but its action shows the use of possible tools in species. It is important that, after creating and using the first device, Figaro seems to know exactly what to do, and has shown no hesitation in subsequent tests. '

Kacelnik had previously studied the New Caledonian crow. These crows are considered experts in creating tools in nature and they seem to hone their 'craft' by learning from older crows. However, in a case similar to Figaro's, Kacelnik observed a New Caledonian crow named Betty inventing an unprecedented electric wire hook to get food out of its reach.

Kacelnik believes that the case of the Betty and Figaro crows will help scientists discover what is unknown about the evolution of intelligence.

The study is published in Current Biology this week.