Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 12, 2026
14:14
The Innovation Arena: A Method for Comparing Innovative Problem-Solving Across Groups
Published on: May 13, 2022
6.5K
Unrewarded Object Combinations in Captive Parrots
Alice Marie Isabel Auersperg1, Natalie Oswald2, Markus Domanegg3
1University of Vienna ; University of Oxford ; MaxPlanck Institute.
Animal Behavior and Cognition
|May 19, 2015
Summary
Parrots exhibit complex object manipulation skills, combining items and using them with substrates. These behaviors are more advanced in parrot species known for problem-solving and tool use, similar to primates.
Area of Science:
- Comparative cognition
- Avian behavior
- Primate behavior
Background:
- Complex object combinations in primates are linked to functional behaviors.
- Parrots are increasingly studied for their cognitive abilities, including problem-solving and tool use.
- Previous research has focused on specific parrot species like kea, African grey parrots, and Goffin cockatoos.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate combinatory object manipulation behaviors in seven parrot species.
- To compare object combination skills across different parrot species, including known problem-solvers and tool-users.
- To examine if object combination complexity correlates with advanced cognitive abilities in parrots.
Main Methods:
- Observing unrewarded object manipulation in seven parrot species: kea, African grey parrots, Goffin cockatoos, black palm cockatoos, yellow-billed Amazon, black-billed Amazon, and burrowing parakeets.
- Analyzing free object-object combinations and object-substrate combinations (e.g., inserting objects into tubes, stacking rings).
- Comparing observed behaviors with existing knowledge of species' cognitive abilities and tool use.
Main Results:
- Parrot species previously associated with advanced physical cognition and tool use showed more complex object-object and object-substrate combinations.
- Behaviors such as inserting objects into tubes/holes and stacking rings onto poles were prevalent in these cognitively advanced species.
- Goffin cockatoos and kea demonstrated intrinsically structured free object-object combinations.
Conclusions:
- Object combination complexity in parrots parallels findings in primates and corvids.
- Advanced object manipulation skills in parrots are linked to their capacity for physical cognition and tool use.
- Specific parrot species exhibit sophisticated, structured object combination behaviors, highlighting their cognitive flexibility.
Related Concept Videos
01:20Mate Choice
12.0K
Mate choice—the decision about whom to mate with—is a type of natural selection, since animals must reproduce to pass down their genes. Mate choice is also called intersexual selection because the behavior occurs between the sexes.
12.0K
00:48Optimal Foraging
14.3K
How animals obtain and eat their food is called foraging behavior. Foraging can include searching for plants and hunting for prey and depends on the species and environment.
14.3K
02:39Predator-Prey Interactions
22.3K
Predators consume prey for energy. Predators that acquire prey and prey that avoid predation both increase their chances of survival and reproduction (i.e., fitness). Routine predator-prey interactions elicit mutual adaptations that improve predator offenses, such as claws, teeth, and speed, as well as prey defenses, including crypsis, aposematism, and mimicry. Thus, predator-prey interactions resemble an evolutionary arms race.
22.3K
01:05Instinctive Drift
1.3K
Instinctive drift refers to the tendency of animals to revert to their innate behaviors despite repeated reinforcement. Breland and Breland demonstrated this concept in an experiment with a raccoon. The raccoon was trained to pick up two coins and place them in a container in exchange for food. Initially, the raccoon learned to associate the coins with food, making them a conditioned stimulus or a substitute for food. However, over time, the raccoon became less willing to put the coins into the...
1.3K
00:58Symbiosis
38.8K
Symbiotic relationships are long-term, close interactions between individuals of different species that affect the distribution and abundance of those species. When a relationship is beneficial to both species, this is called mutualism. When the relationship is beneficial to one species but neither beneficial nor harmful to the other species, this is called commensalism. When one organism is harmed to benefit another, the relationship is known as parasitism. These types of relationships often...
38.8K
01:46Types of Selection
46.5K
Natural selection influences the frequencies of particular alleles and phenotypes within populations in several different ways. Primarily, natural selection can be directional, stabilizing, or disruptive. Directional selection favors one extreme trait and shifts the population towards that phenotype while selecting against individuals displaying alternate traits. Stabilizing selection favors an intermediate trait with a narrow range of variation. Deviation from the optimal phenotype towards an...
46.5K