While the winner of this particular arms race remains unclear, the researchers say they expect to see more of these kinds of human-wildlife interactions in the future. 'People come up with new protection methods on their own, but a lot of people actually learn it from their neighbours or people on their street, so they get their inspiration from someone else,' Dr Klump explained. Learned behaviour isn't just seen in the cockatoos – it's also prevalent in the residents, according to the researchers. 'There are even commercially available cockatoo locks for bins,' Dr Klump said. Instead, a survey revealed how residents put bricks and stones on their bin lids, strap water bottles to the top, rig ropes to prevent the lid from flipping and even use sticks to block the hinges. While the winner of this particular arms race remains unclear, the researchers say they expect to see more of these kinds of human-wildlife interactions in the future While you might think that the residents could simply secure the bin lids completely closed to keep the cockatoos at bay, unfortunately this would stop a rubbish lorry from being able to tip them out. 'The cockatoos learn the behaviour from observing other cockatoos and within each group they sort of have their own special technique, so across a wide geographic range the techniques are more dissimilar.' 'We could actually show that this is a cultural trait,' she said. The birds tend to use their beaks to pry the bin lids open, before manoeuvring themselves onto the rim and flipping the lid open.Īnd this technique is a 'community affair', according to Dr Klump. ![]() 'Once one gets a bin open all the cockatoos in the vicinity will come and try to get something nice to eat.' 'When I first saw a video of the cockatoos opening the bins I thought it was such an interesting and unique behaviour and I knew we needed to look into it,' said Dr Barbara Klump, lead author of the study.Ĭockatoos have learned that bins have food waste hidden inside, and will do anything it takes to reach it, according to Dr Klump.
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