Cockatoo Shows Tool-Making Skills

Cockatoo Shows Tool-Making Skills

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A captive-bred Goffin’s cockatoo has surprised researchers by spontaneously making and using “tools” to reach food. The species is not known to use tools in the wild. Researchers in Austria recorded the cockatoo – named Figaro – repeatedly breaking off splinters from a wooden beam and using them to reach nuts on the other side of his wire enclosure. The team believe Figaro’s feat is the first recorded instance of tool-making among parrots. The study, published in the journal Current Biology, was carried out at an aviary near Vienna.