Instead, the unmotivated birds (five wild-caught and one laboratory) consistently couldn’t be bothered to interact with the IA, while the other participants, (three wild-caught and 10 laboratory) “consistently maintained their interest in the setup and discovered a similar number of solutions at the same rate.” “Captivity bias” is a term used by animal researchers to describe the bump in intelligence, as related to problem-solving, seen in animals subject to long term captivity when compared with their wild peers.Īuersperg’s work presents a new paradigm, at least with birds, that group-identity (captive, wild-caught) could not predict the probability of finding solutions to the 20 problems. “It yielded a number of interesting findings, with the most significant one being that long-term captivity does not seem to affect the Goffins’ overall capacity to innovate in the IA but rather their motivation to do so.” MORE: Snowy Owl Spotted in New York’s Central Park For the First Time in 130 Years “It is, to our knowledge, the first study specifically targeting innovation rate per time unit in animals and the first systematically controlled direct comparison of problem-solving between captive-born and temporarily wild-caught animals,” read the study, published in 2020 in the journal Scientific Reports. Each avian would then have 20 minutes to freely explore, innovate, and get as many treats as they cared to work for. With a controlled environment to study both innovation behavior and innovation rate, Auersberg created the “Innovation Arena,” (IA) a semicircle of 20 different challenges all baited with a preferred food reward. Tool-use was just the start of the Silicon Valley careers of Figaro and his friends, as Auersberg has more recently been comparing their intelligence to those of cockatoos that have spent, unlike Figaro, only a short time in captivity. In a moonshot, Auersperg also gave them beeswax, which none of the four birds could manage to work with. Kiwi managed both the larch wood and the twig-trimming, but failed with the cardboard, which researchers predicted would be the hardest task. Demonstrations by Figaro included trimming the branches off a twig, splitting a thin board of larch wood, and even using his beak like a scissor to painstakingly bite cardboard into a long enough tool.įigaro’s best pupil was Dolittle, who mastered the twig-trimming, cardboard-cutting, and larch-woodworking, while Pipin only managed the twig, having some kind of phobia towards larch wood. “Subjects observing demonstrations showed greater tool-related performance than ghost controls, with all three males in this group… acquiring tool-using competence.” “Twelve Goffin’s saw either demonstrations by Figaro, or ‘ghost’ controls where tools and/or food were manipulated using magnets,” writes Auersperg, in the corresponding research paper. Goffin Lab, University of Veterinary Medicine Viennaįigaro shares the lab with 15 other cockatoos, none of whom are wing clipped, and all of whom participate in trials voluntarily, with the option of simply flying away always available. Auersperg wanted to see if Figaro could impart this self-generated wisdom onto his peers. Class is in sessionĪt the Goldegg Goffin Lab, part of the Messerli Institute for Research, the avian clubhouse where Figaro and his friends live, lab director Alice M.I.

Impressed, the researchers replaced the pebble with a cashew, triggering Figaro to stick his beak through the bars of his cage and gnaw off a splinter of wood from the very beam the cashew was resting on, before using the splinter to reel the cashew into his tensile beak. Desiring this pebble for his own purposes, he tried to pull it towards him using a shard of bamboo. One day four years ago, at the Goffin Lab in Vienna, a center for avian intelligence, Figaro noticed a pebble outside his cage resting on a wooden beam. Unlike crows, whose bills are quite straight and useful for manipulating the world around them, cockatoos have curled beaks, designed simply for cracking nuts and seeds. They’ve become a model species for avian intelligence. Goffin’s cockatoos live on the Tanimbar Islands, a small archipelago in Indonesia.

Goffins cockatoo