Creative cockatoos have learned to open the household wheelie bins in Sydney. They eat food and waste inside the bin, and this behavior spreads nearby cockatoos to create a local dumpster-diving culture--but Australians are becoming innovative in designing devices to protect their wheelie bins too.
The sulfur-crested cockatoos or Cacatua galerita are dominant bird species living in the southern part of Sydney, Australia. They learned to open household wheelie bins in search of food wastes such as fruit and bread. These witty parrots throw garbage on sidewalks and create a dumpster mess. Since most cockatoos do dumpsters, the skill rapidly spreads throughout the winged community.
Angry humans are fighting back against the dumpster attack using their self-developed countermeasures. These innovative measures include bricks, pool needles, spikes, and even shoes and sticks. Their mission is to prevent the parrots from flipping the lid open and attacking the rubbish before the garbage truck empties its content.
Human Bin Protection
The bin protection devices have met with varying levels of success. The simplest rubbish bin protection is a rubber snake placed on the top of the lid to scare away the birds, which doesn't work well.
From rubber snakes to heavy bricks, that only slows down the cockatoos' attack, who push the brick off the lid. But another more innovative way of dump protection seems to be working well. So far.
Behavioral ecologist and postdoctoral at Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior Barbara Klump said that the first time they investigated the bin-opening behavior, she was surprised by all the unique measures people have created to protect their bins from the cockatoos.
But as the situation needs more innovation, the crafty cockatoos are devising new ways to defeat humans' well-planned and sophisticated rubbish bin protection. People from the same neighborhood watch other protection devices from their neighbors that they can adapt to, which is proven effective against the parrot.
A Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo was enjoying stolen fruit. Cromer, Sydney, New South Wales. Image from Scott Gibbons
The Study of Dumpster and Cockatoos
Doctor Klump and her team originated studying the cockatoos and wanted to know their behavior in this escalating arms race. They examined 3283 wheelie bins across four suburbs in Sydney where there are cockatoos-related open bins. They have documented 52 combinations of techniques designed by humans to deter cockatoos from opening the trash bins, noting that such protection methods varied between 0% to 50% across the suburbs.
With her team, Doctor Klump figured out where the bin-opening culture of the cockatoos originated, and they figured out that the cockatoos living in three Sydney suburbs in 2018 quickly spread in the cockatoo community and encompassed 44 suburbs.
The researchers traced the human response to the cockatoos to see where and when various bin protection devices were adopted geographically.
The bins close to each other have a similar protection type compared to those close in geographic space but out of sight, which means that people imitate the bin protection from their neighbors.
Study's Results
The team gathered responses from 1134 Sydney residents in an online survey, revealing that bin protection changes over time.
The respondents provided enough information regarding how they designed thor bin protection; the team found that 64% used social information for inspiration, and 60% of respondents copied earlier methods.
People are not only demonstrating that they learn from neighbors how to build better bin protection methods, but the cockatoos are learning to defeat human innovations by watching each other.
Doctor Klump said that in this 'arms race,' both parties are learning socially.
On the online survey, the respondents commented that they changed their method of protecting their wheelie bins.
Scientists once thought that only humans have a culture, but the study reveals how cockatoos are capable problem solvers and disseminate information throughout their community.
Next year, Doctor Klump plans to study further how urban cockatoos can adapt to the innovative bin protection methods from people's inventions.
She added that human-wildlife interaction would continue in the future when cities have become a refuge for wildlife. She ended her statement in hopes of a better understanding and tolerance for the animals that we share our lives with.
RELATED ARTICLE: Cockatoos Learned Through Social Learning to Open Trash Bins to Access Leftover Food
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