Study: Australia's Cockatoos Enter into 'Inter-Species Arms Race' with Humans

According to a new study published in peer-reviewed scientific journal Current Biology, cockatoos are developing new techniques to overcome obstructions placed on trash cans which the birds have been trying to access. 

Previous research into the subject has also already demonstrated that the noisy parrots have developed ingenious techniques for throwing open trash can lids to pry through the waste for food.

The cockatoos have also found ways to remove bricks or other heavy objects that might have been placed there by humans to prevent garbage from spilling on the streets.

The new research said that the birds are thwarting human defenses, thus revealing an "interspecies innovation arms race” with humans, who in turn are innovating so that the cockatoos aren’t able to pry open trash cans. 

Barbara Klump, a behavioral scientist at Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the lead author of the study, found out during her research that cockatoos attacked 338 garbage cans across 478 suburbs.

Skie Jones, a Sydney resident, told AFP that she had to resort to tying a rope to her trash can's lid after clever cockatoos developed a way to remove the bricks from the garbage can.

Scientists, however, say that the cockatoos haven’t been able to overcome more involved methods of resistance, such as when humans tie the lid to the wall with a rope or drill screws into the trash can.

Klump added that the human response to these cockatoo innovations was the "most interesting part" of the research for her.

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