The Origins of ‘Cockatoo Golf’

The idea for ‘cockatoo golf’ originated from lead author Antonio Osuna-Mascaró, who drew inspiration from his daily walks through a golf course on his way to work.

“In my lovely uphill walk to the lab, I pass a castle (Goldegg) and a golf club (Goldegg Golf Club),” Dr. Osuna-Mascaró explained via email. “One day, while contemplating how to design an experiment involving composite tool use, I was collecting golf balls and suddenly thought, ‘Why don’t I create an experiment where the cockatoos play golf?’”

Dr. Osuna-Mascaró has an intriguing background, having recently earned his PhD at the University of Georgia, where he studied tool use among wild chimpanzees under the guidance of comparative psychologist and primatologist, Dorothy Fragaszy.

“Her methodology regarding tool use focuses significantly on movement and spatial relations, which is far deeper than what has been explored concerning avian tool use,” Dr. Osuna-Mascaró stated.

Despite already holding a PhD, he shifted his focus to animal behavior and cognition, pursuing a second PhD at Alice Auersperg’s Goffin Lab.

“I aimed to apply the theoretical framework developed for primate tool use, a more established field, to avian tool use.”

However, unlike wild chimpanzees, Goffin’s cockatoos do not use tools in their natural habitat. When asked what motivated Dr. Osuna-Mascaró to study these parrots, he remarked, “Goffin’s cockatoos are truly remarkable animals. Although they don’t widely use tools in the wild, they exhibit an astonishing ability to solve tool-related tasks. They engage with tools in a manner dependent on general cognition, which makes them even more intriguing.”

What Does ‘Cockatoo Golf’ Entail?

The Golf Club Task consists of a transparent plexiglass puzzle box featuring a floor covered in a rough carpet-like material resembling a “green.” It has tubes on either side leading to a collapsible trapdoor held in place by magnets. One of these platforms is baited with a visible portion of a cashew nut as a reward for the cockatoo.

The upper section of the Golf Club Task apparatus is constructed from wood and securely attached to the plexiglass base during testing. The front features a metal grid with a central round hole and two narrower openings, allowing the cockatoo to manipulate the ball into the trapdoor where the treat lies.

To access the cashew nut, the ball must first be inserted into the apparatus through the central hole, followed by the insertion of the stick to maneuver the ball into the trapdoor, releasing the nut for the waiting cockatoo.

The Golf Club Task was designed to assess whether the cockatoos could develop a viable solution to a challenge demanding an advanced level of tool use known as composite tool use. This involves utilizing the distinct functions of two different tools to achieve a single goal, a skill exhibited by only a few primates.

Dr. Osuna-Mascaró noted, “The classic example of composite tool use in the wild is nut cracking. Chimpanzees use a large stone as an anvil and a smaller one as a hammer. I wanted to evaluate if our cockatoos could adeptly use composite tools, but I sought a task more natural for their physiology than hammering stones.”

Thus far, only chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys are recognized as tool-using primates, requiring years of practice to crack nutshells without pulverizing the nut. Remarkably, the cockatoos figured out the necessary series of tasks to master the Golf Club Task after just a few attempts.

This aligns with over a decade of unexpected discoveries regarding Goffin’s cockatoos’ abilities to independently create and utilize tools for specific tasks. The initial observation of tool use occurred when a clever parrot named Figaro, the ‘alpha parrot’ in the Goffin Lab’s group, applied his skills to retrieve a cashew nut that was out of reach.

None of the cockatoos had previously used tools in combination or received guidance on how to solve the Golf Club Task. When asked how he taught the birds to play golf, Dr. Osuna-Mascaró laughed, “I didn’t! They figured it out on their own.”

The only hint provided to the cockatoos was that the side platforms were collapsible.

“Only three cockatoos successfully mastered the task,” Dr. Osuna-Mascaró shared. “Two others eventually solved it, but not with enough consistency to be considered successful.”

“A fortunate shot doesn’t make a cockatoo a golf expert,” he added.

Although five out of the eleven participating cockatoos didn’t discover a method to solve the Golf Club Task, they actively employed various strategies to obtain the coveted cashew nut, with their preferred approach being to attempt to dismantle the box itself to access the treat.

“They are incredibly intelligent animals, but also quite destructive, akin to gremlins after midnight,” Dr. Osuna-Mascaró remarked.

Thinking Beyond Conventional Methods

“They had prior experience with sticks and balls, but they never combined them nor interacted with both in this manner,” Dr. Osuna-Mascaró explained. “The significant challenge for them was to utilize the stick differently than in previous experiments. It’s akin to those insight tests where you need to think outside the box.”

Initially, the three birds that managed to solve the Golf Club Task took nearly the entire ten-minute period to figure it out. However, after several trials, their times dramatically improved.

Among them, Figaro, the clever bird, solved the task on his first attempt and recorded an impressive six-second time on his fourth try.

“It was astonishing.”

As an added twist, Figaro even cheated on his second attempt by using the stick as a lever to elevate and drop the box, causing the platforms to collapse and releasing the cashew nut.

“This is quite remarkable. After a trial that lasted nine minutes, he solved it incredibly quickly, seemingly remembering the functionally relevant movements from the previous trial,” Dr. Osuna-Mascaró noted. “We typically avoid discussing ‘understanding’ because it’s a complex term to define, but it genuinely seems Figaro comprehended the task.”

Dr. Osuna-Mascaró expressed amazement at how each cockatoo devised unique techniques for gripping the stick and hitting the ball, sometimes displaying astonishing dexterity.

Our Cockatoo Overlords

This experiment illustrates that Goffin’s cockatoos, which are not evolutionarily specialized for tool use, exhibit cognitive abilities that are both impressive and adaptable. They can creatively combine the functions of different tools to tackle new challenges, achieving this in mere minutes.

I, for one, look forward to the day of our cockatoo overlords.

Source:

Antonio J. Osuna-Mascaró, Roger Mundry, Sabine Tebbich, Sarah R. Beck & Alice M. I. Auersperg (2022). Innovative composite tool use by Goffin’s cockatoos (*Cacatua goffiniana*), Scientific Reports 12:1510 | doi: 10.1038/s41598–022–05529–9

Originally published at Forbes.com on February 9, 2022.

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