[HN Gopher] Cockatoos have learned to operate drinking fountains...
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Cockatoos have learned to operate drinking fountains in Australia
Author : pseudolus
Score : 274 points
Date : 2025-06-04 09:42 UTC (13 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.science.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.science.org)
| LadyCailin wrote:
| https://archive.ph/VlFzr
| haunter wrote:
| The why part is the most interesting because seemingly there no
| obvious answer to it though I like the "pure taste" theory.
|
| >So why did the cockatoos gravitate to drinking fountains in the
| first place, when plenty of other water sources such as puddles
| and creeks are available? Perhaps they have developed a taste for
| the purer fountain water, Klump says. Or the elevated fountain
| perch helps them spot approaching predators such as eagles and
| falcons.
| dismalaf wrote:
| Anyone who's spent long enough observing animals knows the
| reason... Animals are fucking lazy, why travel to find water
| when you can hang out, drink from an automatic machine and
| harass locals into feeding you and/or steal from them?
| tomashubelbauer wrote:
| It also seems like it would be more fun and mentally
| stimulating to operate a water fountain which is a reason to do
| it that I wouldn't put past a cockatoo given how smart they
| are.
| bbarnett wrote:
| Gonads have driven creatures to show they are more capable
| than others, whether knowledge or capability, for eternity.
| So much of our drive, just a drive to "do better" is driven
| by such.
| padjo wrote:
| It's kinda comical. Like gee I wonder why they want to drink
| cool delicious clean water from a tap, not dank stagnant water
| from puddles. What a mystery for the ages!
|
| Of course I understand that in the context of scientific
| research you can't just assume, it's just a bit absurd from the
| outside.
| diggan wrote:
| > Like gee I wonder why they want to drink cool delicious
| clean water from a tap, not dank stagnant water from puddles.
| What a mystery for the ages!
|
| I mean, it could also not be about taste at all, I'm sure not
| all animals taste things the same, not even all humans have
| the same taste it seems, I can't stand fish and I love
| licorice, many are the opposite :)
|
| Besides, many animals seem to enjoy just "different" things.
| When I'm out and about with my dogs, they love trying to
| drink water from puddles, even if I have a portable bowl with
| fresh water right next to it. Maybe it's more "interesting"
| or "flavorful"? Who knows...
| positr0n wrote:
| I don't know.. it seems like every dog I know would rather
| drink out of a muddy puddle than their clean water bowl.
| worik wrote:
| My dog
|
| Would rather drink the water used to clean chicken shit off
| the deck than anything else
|
| Would die of thirst rather than drink slightly dusty, dog
| saliva contaminated water from their bowl. That Must Be
| Clean! Now, human!!
| xeromal wrote:
| My dog is obsessed with drinking water from the toilet and
| will use guests visiting as an opportunity to get into the
| bathroom.
| Narishma wrote:
| > Like gee I wonder why they want to drink cool delicious
| clean water from a tap, not dank stagnant water from puddles.
| What a mystery for the ages!
|
| Tell that to my cats. If they got the chance they will always
| prefer to drink from puddles of muddy rainwater instead of
| the clean water we give them.
| mfer wrote:
| > So why did the cockatoos gravitate to drinking fountains in
| the first place
|
| Some species of birds, like cockatoos, like puzzles. They like
| to figure things out.
| gadders wrote:
| Cats are known to prefer running water - probably as it's more
| likely to be fresher and not stagnant. Maybe a similar thing
| applies here.
| m463 wrote:
| skateboards are also terrible transportation devices,
| especially down stairs and handrails... :)
|
| As a bird owner, they get bored. They like to play like dogs,
| but in 3d. They also have musical rhythm.
| zik wrote:
| Cockies are the pranksters of the bird world. They're smart and
| they think it's hilarious to mess with each other and anyone
| else. They also tear everything to pieces. So it's no surprise
| really that if any bird worked out how to operate a drinking
| fountain it'd be these hilarious little jerks.
| Lerc wrote:
| If they are the pranksters, I wonder what that makes the Kea. I
| think they are counted as smarter, they definitely enjoy a bit
| of malicious fun.
| cwsx wrote:
| The most accurate representation of "Chaotic Neutral" - the
| cheeky bastards love stealing ANYTHING, and when there's
| nothing to steal they'll start ripping the rubber off your
| car door seals (or windshield wipers).
|
| They are amazing birds, very deserving of the name "Clown of
| the Mountains".
| grandpoobah wrote:
| I'll never understand why we New Zealanders chose a
| flightless defenseless bird as our national bird when we
| have so many other great candidates.
| throwaway7783 wrote:
| I am now obliged to mention bird of the year puteketeke!
| anonym29 wrote:
| Thank you, John Oliver.
| worik wrote:
| Not so defenseless
| scheeseman486 wrote:
| Keas are gremlins but real.
| tech2 wrote:
| Weka can be a lot of fun too, I saw a pack of them opening
| someone's backpack zipper to find out what's inside.
| sroussey wrote:
| I was hiking and had a Kea flapping its wings on the ground
| to get our attention while his friend was going through our
| backpacks.
| pjmlp wrote:
| Ah, team work.
| nsxwolf wrote:
| I saw a seagull sneak up to and scream at a guy to make him
| drop his fish and chips and all his seagull buddies swooped
| in and took it.
| an_aparallel wrote:
| Seagulls, magpie and ibis (im not being fun or joking
| here) have evolved to exhibit cooperative traits and
| behaviours to get food, including tricking, diverting,
| cooperating and most annoying literally staunching
| people.
|
| I was having a burrito on manly wharf a long while back,
| a seagull just lands on the table and death stares me...i
| felt uncomfortable and moved, because i know they will
| try and take my food off me!
| MeIam wrote:
| I looked up the bird..
|
| They are smart!
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W7hEUGtv4U
| lostlogin wrote:
| I liked the Kea messing with traffic cones and redirecting
| traffic, apparently slowing cars and getting fed.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ4Y7svFgnQ
| worik wrote:
| Local legend has it Kea work it groups. Team work
|
| One group will entertain the tourists (in mountain huts in
| the back country) by putting on ammusing displays of
| acrobatics and hijinks
|
| The other team use razor sharp claws and beaks to open thir
| packs and get to all the interesting stuff inside
| Nursie wrote:
| > hilarious little jerks.
|
| We had a galah chewing our hosepipe the other day. I pointed
| and said "oi!" and the little scamp stopped, straightened up,
| looked me right in the eye and ... did it again.
|
| Oh and not to forget the kookas. I heard a pop and noise like
| water a few weeks ago, and ran into our living room. Outside
| the main window there's that hose reel mounted on the wall that
| was spraying freely against the glass. A kookaburra had somehow
| pulled the hozelock end off and was taking a shower.
| technion wrote:
| The kookaburras here have a reputation for taking snags right
| off a burning BBQ without apparently hurting themselves.
| gearhart wrote:
| I will never forget watching a kookaburra swoop down as my
| grandmother went to take a bite out of a bacon sandwich,
| and stealing a piece of bacon out of it without touching
| her or the bread. It then sat on a branch whacking the
| bacon against it to "kill it" before eating it.
| MetallicCloud wrote:
| Same with me, but I was camping as a kid. One took the
| snag out of my mates bread just as he was about to bite
| it. It made sure it was dead by hitting it on the tree it
| landed in.
| lostlogin wrote:
| I'm only just across the ditch and needed to search this.
|
| Snag = sausage.
| duxup wrote:
| I was visiting a place that takes in rescue animals, in this
| case they had a lot of birds.
|
| In their typical speech to people about NOT keeping birds as
| pets they described some of the birds as "highly curious, the
| maturity of a human 5 year old, with an intense desire to be
| destructive".
| gs17 wrote:
| On top of that, they have one tool, and it's a pair of
| boltcutters you can't take away. And the most clever of them
| have a good chance to outlive their owners.
| BobaFloutist wrote:
| My wife always joke about how parrots sound like a fun pet
| until you consider the phrase "Flying eternal toddlers, that
| cannot be diapered or potty-trained, with can-opener mouths."
| Prcmaker wrote:
| And the means to achieve that destruction. Cockatoos are like
| flying bolt cutters.
| colechristensen wrote:
| I aspire to one day befriend a local murder of crows. Not to
| keep as pets or to make dependent on me, but maybe to bribe
| to clean up trash or steal quarters for me... or to defend my
| honor should the need arise.
| FireBeyond wrote:
| When I lived in Australia we had a wooden full length porch
| (elevated), and where we lived in the hills outside Melbourne
| we could easily have 20-30 cockatoos hang out on it in the
| morning. They were mercifully not loud, but they absolutely
| destroyed the deck rails, and we had to replace them with
| heavier duty industrial plastic deck.
| junon wrote:
| Caiques and Blue Hyacinths are definitely more pranksters,
| Cockatoos are just plain psychos.
| rstuart4133 wrote:
| Or gangsters. We had a bird feeder, which we occasionally let
| run dry. A cockatoo got pissed with this, and concocted a
| scheme. When the feeder was empty he sat on the outside
| fridge and screeched. Once he got your attention, he made
| sure he was in full view and started destroying things . He
| only stopped when you put out more feed.
|
| Amused by this I mentioned it at a neighborhood BBQ, and was
| greeted by a chorus of "oh yes, that happens at my place
| too". The guy holding the BBQ held up his BBQ tools and said:
| "See, brand new, this is the 3rd set". It was a neighborhood
| wide protection racket run by one bird.
| rukuu001 wrote:
| Indeed. My father spent a lot of time bellowing at cockatoos
| that'd land in his fruit trees and tear them to pieces. He'd
| storm about and wave a broom at them until they took off.
| Classic old man yelling at clouds.
|
| When he was on the other side of the house in the garage,
| they'd take fruit from the trees and drop them on the sloping
| driveway so they rolled down into the garage. Come play old
| fella.
| dedicate wrote:
| Okay, first the bins, now drinking fountains?! I'm genuinely
| starting to wonder what human contraption these feathered
| overlords will conquer next, and I get a slight 'planet of the
| apes... but with cockatoos' vibe.
| tanseydavid wrote:
| A remake of Hitchcock's The Birds, but with cockatoos would be
| epic.
| anotherevan wrote:
| During our extended Melbourne lockdowns in 2020-1, the amount
| of cockys hanging around due to the relative lack of cars and
| people truly was epic. Out walking within my prescribed 5km
| radius the thought that I was in a Hitchcock movie did pass
| through my mind more than once.
| srean wrote:
| Checkout Kea parrots too
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kea#Cognitive_abilities
|
| https://youtu.be/Yj718A7_s4A?si=yaiv4sZiY4xmzK0C. -- Kea doing
| probabilities and inferring from (biased) experiments
| metayrnc wrote:
| Highly recommend this youtube channel for anyone interested in
| the problem solving capabilities of these birds.
|
| https://youtu.be/A5YyTHyaNpo?si=cLj4e4heV7kiXq5v
| jen729w wrote:
| Fun fact: all cockies are left-handed. I used to live in
| Canberra, where they're plentiful. I heard this 'fact' and was
| doubtful. Well, I've since seen hundreds of these birds eating
| acorns and, can confirm, every one a leftie.
| Caelus9 wrote:
| This is the first time I've heard something like this I had no
| idea animals could be left handed too! We used to have two
| budgies at home, but I never paid attention to which foot they
| preferred. Now I'm honestly tempted to go watch a bunch of
| parrot videos just to see if this leftie thing shows up
| elsewhere too.
| CGMthrowaway wrote:
| Fiddler crabs have one large claw and one small one. Usually
| which is bigger (right or left) is distributed 50/50. But
| there is one species - an Australian one - where only 1.4%
| are left-clawed.
|
| A crab finding itself left-clawed means they fight
| differently and are generally less successful in fights, thus
| they live a more asocial life by choice and necessity.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelasimus_vomeris
| Tarsul wrote:
| now I want a childrens movie about a left-handed crab who
| fights for all left-handed crabs to be let back into
| society.
| tonytamps wrote:
| Starting to sound like a storyline from the Dungeon
| Crawler Carl novels.
| dmurray wrote:
| Why wouldn't it be like human martial arts, where a left-
| handed fencer or boxer has the advantage of novelty over a
| right-handed opponent? Even in something like table tennis
| this has an effect. Baseball too, but for slightly
| different reasons.
| fwipsy wrote:
| This is a good point. Righty fighting righty would mean
| the large claws are facing smaller claws. Righty fighting
| lefty means small claw facing large claw. But in either
| case both crabs are in the same situation so I would
| expect no advantage to either. Maybe there are other
| parts of crab behavior or anatomy which are hardwired for
| a large right claw? Another question is why left clawed
| crabs haven't died out entirely if they're disadvantaged?
| dmurray wrote:
| Maybe the fights are more lethal for both crabs with a
| righty vs lefty fight, so it's no longer a zero sum game
| of winner gets the territory, loser gets nothing.
| Illniyar wrote:
| Perhaps it's an issue with multiple combatants? If fights
| are not one on one then having one crab be difficult to
| work with can be a problem
| noelwelsh wrote:
| Most cats are left pawed.
|
| Update: see comment below. Studies are not conclusive.
| CGMthrowaway wrote:
| I've seen a few studies that when taken together aren't
| super conclusive, but suggest that perhaps around 3/4 of
| cats have handedness and that there may be some bias to one
| side or the other based on sex.
| bookofjoe wrote:
| See my comment just above yours!
| jjtheblunt wrote:
| i've seen a study (which i can't find) that boy cats are
| usually lefty and girls righty. that fits our sample size
| of four, interestingly, and perhaps randomly, since i can't
| find the study.
| jjtheblunt wrote:
| (too late to edit to include reference to the male/female
| feline handedness)
|
| https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-asymmetric-
| brain...
| bookofjoe wrote:
| My cat is left-pawed: her first swipe at something is always
| with her left front paw.
| _1 wrote:
| It's called the Coriolis effect.
| AnotherGoodName wrote:
| Corella's effect :)
| Caelus9 wrote:
| Watching cockatoos figure out stuff like this really makes me
| wonder have we been seriously underestimating bird intelligence
| all this time? We tend to associate tool use with primates, but
| parrots, corvids, and kea keep proving us wrong in the smartest
| ways. Honestly, maybe "avian cognition" deserves its own category
| of advanced problem solving. There's probably a lot we could
| learn from their behavior not just about animals, but about
| ourselves and the systems we build.
| i80and wrote:
| Avian cognition is so darn interesting. We associate the
| mammalian neocortex with "higher intelligence" (which is hand-
| wavy), but that structure arose after any common ancestor with
| birds.
|
| The avian pallium is thought to be the analogue structure in
| birds, evolved separately.
|
| Which is cool! Birds have _separately evolved_ intelligence!
| Trasmatta wrote:
| I've recently gone down the rabbit hole of watching pet bird
| videos on YouTube. The wide range of behaviors is so
| fascinating. They can be so affectionate, playful,
| mischievous, and just plain goofy.
|
| The African grey parrots are fascinating in particular, with
| their ability to connect words to more abstract concepts like
| counting.
| berkes wrote:
| Even cooler, IMHO, is that invertebrates evolved intelligence
| (and almost identical eyes!) parallel to primate's and
| corvids'.
|
| Squid, octopi, etc have cognitive abilities that sometimes
| overtake that of "intelligent" mammals or birds. Yet common
| ancestors are about as far away as is possible in animal
| kingdom.
|
| (And also please remember this when ordering calamari next
| time ;)
|
| Edit: I very much enjoyed this bestseller popular science
| book on invertebrates intelligence: https://en.wikipedia.org/
| wiki/Other_Minds%3A_The_Octopus%2C_...
| i80and wrote:
| Since reading about cephalopod intelligence, I cut calamari
| out of my diet cold. I quip that I have a policy against
| eating anything smarter than me!
| echelon_musk wrote:
| Would you eat a human that was less intelligent than a
| cephalopod?
| temp0826 wrote:
| If they're so smart why aren't I on their plate instead?
| (Though I'm not a fan and don't ever go for calamari
| personally anyways...)
|
| Wait are any cephalopods vegan?
| WorkerBee28474 wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalopod_attack
| MaysonL wrote:
| I enjoyed the novel "Remakably Bright Creatures" which had
| an octupus as a main character.
| 4gotunameagain wrote:
| And then we have octopi, with their separately evolved
| decentralised intelligence !
|
| A mini brain in each arm, orchestrated by the main brain.
| bookofjoe wrote:
| The plural is octopuses. Octopi is not a word.
| 4gotunameagain wrote:
| It's a hill I'm willing to die on ;)
|
| Both octopuses and octopodes are terrible words.
|
| And words are made by us, you cannot tell me what's a
| word and what isn't.
| OJFord wrote:
| Octopodes is correct if you want a classical (Greek, as
| it is) word. Octopi is an assumption of correctness by
| analogy of people who don't know better, like 'if you
| have any feedback give it to my colleague and I' - it's
| not all posh and correct to say 'and I', it's _wrong_ (in
| that sentence).
| bookofjoe wrote:
| Why I took the time to comment: I recently watched an
| excellent 2-part series entitled "Octopus!" on Prime
| Video:
|
| https://youtu.be/u1TLQUH43Yw?si=L8Ta4RG1Kp8tkHWU
|
| Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the narrator, must have said
| "octopuses" a hundred times, so it's kind of burned into
| my brain.
| xenadu02 wrote:
| Fun fact:
|
| All words and grammar rules are made up. Entirely. As
| in... invented by humans. The laws of physics don't
| really care.
|
| If lots of people use "octopi" (and they do) and most
| people understand what it means (which they do) then
| congrats! It is, in fact, a word. If enough people apply
| an "i" ending to words then that becomes itself a new
| grammar rule.
|
| English, just like every other language, also has a ton
| of unwritten grammar rules as well as spoken word only
| rules.
|
| In short: octopi is in fact a perfectly cromulent word.
| soulofmischief wrote:
| I can't speak for the average person but I don't think I've
| encountered many intelligent people who don't also recognize
| bird intelligence. They have a greater neuron packing density
| than mammals and there's plenty footage online of corvids using
| tools.
| neoden wrote:
| > have we been seriously underestimating bird intelligence all
| this time
|
| another question that I keep asking myself is: are we seriously
| overestimating human intelligence all this time?
| yen223 wrote:
| I think there's ample evidence that humans have some
| incredible things, that most animals haven't
| Towaway69 wrote:
| Like inventing the artificial kind of intelligence!
|
| I sometimes wonder whether we invented AI because we felt
| lonely in a universe where we - apparently by our own
| judgement - are the only intelligent beings.
|
| /s
| neoden wrote:
| Yes, humans invented new ways to communicate with some
| obvious incredible results, but how much a single human is
| more intelligent than a single animal? Is this difference
| that big as we used to believe?
| NooneAtAll3 wrote:
| as the saying goes "there's an overlap between the smartest
| bear and dumbest tourist"
| elif wrote:
| Ehhh it's definitely nuanced but we certainly haven't been
| dramatically overlooking anything fundamental.
|
| The prevailing wisdom has been that a fully developed cockatoo
| has roughly the intelligence of a 3 year old.
|
| A 3 year old figuring out how to use a drinking fountain
| wouldn't be world-breaking science, and I don't think this is
| either.
|
| We have proven that they don't understand language and can
| simply mimic sounds. I don't think it's as deep as you are
| hoping.
| teaearlgraycold wrote:
| Could they have their own language though?
| elif wrote:
| Cockatoo language in nature is this:
|
| Child: wild call
|
| Parent: wild call back
|
| Child: wild call back
|
| Parent: wild call back
|
| Child: wild call back
|
| There are bird species with nuanced dialogue-like calls,
| but parrots are not him ...
| xeonmc wrote:
| And, occasionally, demonic summoning chants:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UUjJysUMTw
| lr4444lr wrote:
| Their brain:body mass ratio is very high, so they've been on
| our intelligence radar for years, especially corvids.
| 0xbadcafebee wrote:
| TIL cockatoos are wild in Australia
| hiharryhere wrote:
| Wild, abundant and loud
| foldr wrote:
| You can also see lots of videos online of cockatoos playing the
| shell game, e.g.
| https://youtube.com/shorts/Pu6O_iOZIO4?si=WEko4pfOekdGIbgF
|
| What I love about these is that you can see that the cockatoo
| clearly knows that it's playing a game. It doesn't tip over the
| cup to get the reward (or just tip over all the cups, which is
| the easiest solution if you don't care about the game). It just
| indicates which cup is the right one.
| contingencies wrote:
| Compared to many birds, cockatoos are very social. We have a
| flock of perhaps 40 or 50 nearby. They often break out in to
| smaller groups or as individuals but are found together
| frequently. In this respect they are more like humans.
| _Algernon_ wrote:
| Reminds me of: https://www.birdspot.co.uk/bird-behaviour/blue-
| tits-and-milk... (SFW)
| croemer wrote:
| Original study that's discussed in the Science News link:
| https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2025.001...
| seydor wrote:
| > Although the cockatoos can manipulate the fountain's handles,
| they don't always quench their thirsts. The team found that only
| 41% of attempts ended with the birds successfully drinking water.
| The animals struggled especially when other cockatoos crowded or
| rushed them.
|
| "learned to operate" is an overstatement. They brute-forced a way
| to get water sometimes. Lots of animals do that. Mice learn or
| figure out how to get such water rewards - it's used every day in
| labs studying the brain
| mepiethree wrote:
| Tough crowd. I would say >50% of the time I try to use a water
| fountain, it's broken. Does that mean that humans have only
| brute forces a way to build water fountains sometimes?
| neom wrote:
| No doubt, when rats can do all this, you have to wonder what else
| everything else can do!
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV9z0c1hjnA
|
| Nature is amazing! (especially rattos! :))
| ricardo81 wrote:
| That's great, always amazing to see nature being able to
| manipulate its environment.
|
| I do hope they don't shit all over the nozzle though.
| fblp wrote:
| Given the article says this has spread amongst populations I'm
| suprised there's only one video on the internet of them doing
| this:
| https://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2025/jun/04/su...
|
| This is also an unconventional drinking fountain.
| jofzar wrote:
| Here's another
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianBirds/comments/1kjve1q/su...
| Nifty3929 wrote:
| It did not appear they had learned to actually activate the
| fountain by turning the knob, only to lap up whatever residual
| water was already there.
|
| IOW they "learned" how to drink water, not to use the fountain.
| robocop_legacy wrote:
| From the article:
|
| "Every cockatoo exhibited slight variations in its plan of
| attack. But the general strategy was the same: Each placed one
| or both of its feet on the fountain's twist handle, then
| lowered its weight to twist the handle clockwise and prevent it
| from springing back up. As the parrots slurped water from the
| bubbling spout, their sharp beaks often left behind chew marks
| on the fountain's rubber top."
| jofzar wrote:
| This is the crappier footage, this was on a couple of weeks
| ago. 100% it's activating the bubbler to drink.
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianBirds/comments/1kjve1q/su...
| bookofjoe wrote:
| "bubbler" OMG the only place in the U.S. that calls a
| drinking fountain a bubbler is Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I
| grew up.
|
| >By the early 1960s, news reports highlighted the fact that
| calling a bubbler a bubbler was the sure sign of being a
| Milwaukeean.
|
| https://www.jsonline.com/story/life/green-
| sheet/2020/02/25/w...
| toast0 wrote:
| I went to MSOE after growing up in Southern California.
| Bubbler was a key way to identify those from Milwaukee and
| immediate surroundings. It's such a precise locator; even
| more so than calling I-5 _the 5_ , just as accurate, but
| the 5 gets you to like Santa Barbara and south, where
| bubbler cuts off just over the Milwaukee county line. A
| Racine native drinks from a fountain like everyone else;
| Brookfield natives might use a bubbler.
| bigstrat2003 wrote:
| Bubbler is used in many parts of Wisconsin, not just
| Milwaukee.
| awkward wrote:
| Eastern Massachusetts calls it a bubbler as well.
| bigstrat2003 wrote:
| Bubbler is used in many parts of Wisconsin, it isn't just
| Milwaukee by any means. I grew up in Brillion (2.5 hours
| north of Milwaukee) and everyone there (and the surrounding
| area) calls it a bubbler.
| ryukoposting wrote:
| I moved to Milwaukee a couple years ago. I can confirm this
| is a thing, and it's very weird. I've got a friend from
| Reedsburg who says it's common there, too.
|
| As soon as I saw that comment in the Reddit post, I clicked
| on the guy's profile to see if they're from Wisconsin.
| Wasn't obvious at a glance.
| PicassoCTs wrote:
| If you give such a bird access to a 3d printer and a bird-ui-3d
| design software, what would he print?
| bookofjoe wrote:
| "If a lion could talk, we could not understand him." -- Ludwig
| Wittgenstein
| fortran77 wrote:
| There's a YouTuber who 3D prints puzzles for the neighborhood
| cockatoos to solve and enjoy:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5YyTHyaNpo
| malikNF wrote:
| At first I read it as "Cockroaches".
| Flatcircle wrote:
| It's wild how recently Humans have started to understand how
| smart and aware animals are.
| eatsyourtacos wrote:
| It's also wild how the majority of humans still don't want to
| accept that we are in fact animals.. which I presume is why it
| comes as some shock when a lower intelligent species exhibits
| signs of ourselves.
| m463 wrote:
| a friend had two sulfer crested cockatoos and told me a story
| once.
|
| He had two, a male and a female.
|
| The male played industriously and was adept at doing all kinds of
| things, like untying zipties. (my friend added zipties to the
| cage as a toy). The female never touched any of them.
|
| One day, my friend and his buddy were sitting there, and they
| mentioned this out loud. "She can't untie these things, I think
| she is just stupid compared to (the male)"
|
| At which point, the female went over, untied the ziptie, spat it
| out and walked away. My friend and his buddy sat there open-
| mouthed.
| AStonesThrow wrote:
| Archaea: https://m.xkcd.com/3095/
| dottjt wrote:
| Not at all related (though I am Australian), but I was visiting a
| primary school one time and there was a large sand pit for the
| children to play in. Next to the sand pit was a newly installed
| drinking fountain. However funnily, the entire drinking fountain
| was completely clogged with sand, I assume from children bringing
| the sand to the drinking fountain in order to play with the
| water. Thought it was funny how by simple placement, defeated the
| utility of that device.
| rconti wrote:
| Reminds me of my first Ibis encounter, in Brisbane. I was at an
| outdoor dining area in Southbank. There were signs warning people
| to beware of the ibis, and that the restaurant would not replace
| your food if it was taken by an ibis.
|
| I sat down at a table, and there was a spray bottle with the
| condiments, promisingly-labeled "ibis spray". "Great", I thought
| to myself. "The ibis must hate whatever liquid they put in here".
| I was expecting maybe soapy water, or a lemon juice solution, or
| something.
|
| I began eating, and a massive ibis landed next to me, and looked
| at me, threateningly. I wasn't scared. I held my ground,
| confidently reaching over to the ibis spray. I knew exactly how
| to fix this problem.
|
| I aimed the ibis spray at the creature, and pulled the trigger.
|
| What I now believe to be tap water shot out and struck the ibis,
| who did not even blink as it stared at me menacingly.
|
| "Oh shit", I thought.
| NooneAtAll3 wrote:
| was the knob on "stream" instead of "spray"?
| anjel wrote:
| Birds have primate-like numbers of neurons in their forebrain
| https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4932926/
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