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. 2011 Dec 23;7(6):825-8.
doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.0388. Epub 2011 Jun 2.

Navigating a tool end in a specific direction: stick-tool use in kea (Nestor notabilis)

Alice M I Auersperg  1 , Ludwig Huber, Gyula K Gajdon
Affiliations

Navigating a tool end in a specific direction: stick-tool use in kea (Nestor notabilis)

Alice M I Auersperg et al. Biol Lett. .

Abstract

This study depicts how captive kea, New Zealand parrots, which are not known to use tools in the wild, employ a stick-tool to retrieve a food reward after receiving demonstration trials. Four out of six animals succeeded in doing so despite physical (beak curvature) and ecological (no stick-like materials used during nest construction) constraints when handling elongated objects. We further demonstrate that the same animals can thereafter direct the functional end of a stick-tool into a desired direction, aiming at a positive option while avoiding a negative one.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Right: Basic apparatus (distances in centimetres) with the platforms used during the testing phase. Left: the two tools offered and the boxes on the poles of the platform: natural during demo, red and green during discrimination and testing phase.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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