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Cockatoos have learned to operate drinking fountains in Australia
- LadyCailin 1y agohttps://archive.ph/VlFzr https://archive.ph/VlFzr
- haunter 1y agoThe 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 1y agoAnyone 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 1y agoIt 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.
- b112 1y agoGonads 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 1y agoIt’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 1y ago> 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 1y agoI don't know.. it seems like every dog I know would rather drink out of a muddy puddle than their clean water bowl.
- worik 1y agoMy 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 1y agoMy dog is obsessed with drinking water from the toilet and will use guests visiting as an opportunity to get into the bathroom.
- Narishma 1y ago> 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 1y ago> 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 1y agoCats 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 1y agoskateboards 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.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- zik 1y agoCockies 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 1y agoIf 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 1y agoThe 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 1y agoI'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 1y agoI am now obliged to mention bird of the year pūteketeke!
- anonym29 1y agoThank you, John Oliver.
- worik 1y agoNot so defenseless
- dedicate 1y agoOkay, 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 1y agoA remake of Hitchcock's The Birds, but with cockatoos would be epic.
- anotherevan 1y agoDuring 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 1y agoCheckout Kea parrots too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kea#Cognitive_abilities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kea#Cognitive_abilities https://youtu.be/Yj718A7_s4A?si=yaiv4sZiY4xmzK0C https://youtu.be/Yj718A7_s4A?si=yaiv4sZiY4xmzK0C. -- Kea doing probabilities and inferring from (biased) experiments
- metayrnc 1y agoHighly recommend this youtube channel for anyone interested in the problem solving capabilities of these birds. https://youtu.be/A5YyTHyaNpo?si=cLj4e4heV7kiXq5v https://youtu.be/A5YyTHyaNpo?si=cLj4e4heV7kiXq5v
- jen729w 1y agoFun 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 1y agoThis 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 1y agoFiddler 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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelasimus_vomeris
- Tarsul 1y agonow I want a childrens movie about a left-handed crab who fights for all left-handed crabs to be let back into society.
- tonytamps 1y agoStarting to sound like a storyline from the Dungeon Crawler Carl novels.
- officeplant 1y agoLets not lead this back to another round of crab man jerks off to save the world.
- Caelus9 1y agoWatching 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 1y agoAvian 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 1y agoI'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 1y agoEven 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_the_Sea%2C_and_the_Deep_Origins_of_Consciousness?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other_Minds%3A_The_Octopus%2C_...
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- 0xbadcafebee 1y agoTIL cockatoos are wild in Australia
- hiharryhere 1y agoWild, abundant and loud
- foldr 1y agoYou can also see lots of videos online of cockatoos playing the shell game, e.g. https://youtube.com/shorts/Pu6O_iOZIO4?si=WEko4pfOekdGIbgF 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 1y agoCompared 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_ 1y agoReminds me of: https://www.birdspot.co.uk/bird-behaviour/blue-tits-and-milk-bottle-tops https://www.birdspot.co.uk/bird-behaviour/blue-tits-and-milk... (SFW)
- croemer 1y agoOriginal study that's discussed in the Science News link: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0010#B54 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2025.001...
- seydor 1y ago> 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 1y agoTough 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 1y agoNo doubt, when rats can do all this, you have to wonder what else everything else can do! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV9z0c1hjnA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV9z0c1hjnA Nature is amazing! (especially rattos! :))
- aaron695 1y ago[dead]
- ricardo81 1y agoThat'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 1y agoGiven 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/sulphur-crested-cockatoos-observed-using-bubblers-in-western-sydney-video https://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2025/jun/04/su... This is also an unconventional drinking fountain.
- jofzar 1y agoHere's another https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianBirds/comments/1kjve1q/sulphur_crested_cockatoo_drinking_from_a_bubbler/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianBirds/comments/1kjve1q/su...
- timv 1y ago> This is also an unconventional drinking fountain. Why do you say that? At least in Australia, drinking fountains ("bubblers"!) are fairly non standardised. I don't recall seeing many with that rubber top, but the rotating release mechanism is pretty common. I'd say press buttons are more common but both are typical.
- Nifty3929 1y agoIt 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 1y agoFrom 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 1y agoThis 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/sulphur_crested_cockatoo_drinking_from_a_bubbler/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianBirds/comments/1kjve1q/su...
- bookofjoe 1y ago"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/why-bubbler-what-water-drinking-fountain-called-wisconsin-milwaukee/4793730002/ https://www.jsonline.com/story/life/green-sheet/2020/02/25/w...
- toast0 1y agoI 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.
- PicassoCTs 1y agoIf you give such a bird access to a 3d printer and a bird-ui-3d design software, what would he print?
- malikNF 1y agoAt first I read it as "Cockroaches".
- Flatcircle 1y agoIt's wild how recently Humans have started to understand how smart and aware animals are.
- eatsyourtacos 1y agoIt'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 1y agoa 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 1y agoArchaea: https://m.xkcd.com/3095/ https://m.xkcd.com/3095/
- senectus1 1y agoI have fond childhood memories of having various pet gallah's/cockies. (yes in australia), I love the birds, they're fantastic pets. but thats why I wont ever cage one up.. they clearly intelligent creatures that evolution has designed to be free flying animals. caging them up is beyond cruel.
- DecentShoes 1y agoKeeping birds in a cage is so cruel :( how can anyone do that?
- m463 1y agosleeping cage.
- dottjt 1y agoNot 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 1y agoReminds 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 1y agowas the knob on "stream" instead of "spray"?
- rconti 1y agoyep
- anjel 1y agoBirds have primate-like numbers of neurons in their forebrain https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4932926/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4932926/
- anitil 1y agoI tried to explain cockatoos to a Dutch friend once. I hadn't even gotten to the best parts and she was already convinced I was making everything up.
- wanderingmind 1y agoCuckatoos also know how to open wheelie bins to raid rubbish. Now they can have all the water and food they need. Mischevious scoundrels. https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-07-23/cockatoos-open-wheelie-bin-lid-social-learning-suburbs/100306786 https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-07-23/cockatoos-ope...
- CHB0403085482 1y agoCockatoos learn fast... https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2023-11-12/white-cockatoos-get-a-taste-for-smelly-durian/103078058 https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2023-11-12/white-cockatoos...
- Kiyo-Lynn 1y agoThese cockatoos are truly the rockstars of the bird world. Not only can they learn to operate drinking fountains, but they also queue up to drink. Have they in some way, already mastered the use of tools and problem-solving abilities, just like humans do?
- ehnto 1y agoThey love to drop things on you from the trees. They laugh and laugh, the cacophony of screeches can be deafening. They mess with traffic all day long too, swooping cars from the traffic lights. My family has a rescue Galah, very similar to Sulfur Crested Cockatoos and he is very smart. He knows the right words to use and when, he thinks the cat is called "ps ps ps" so he calls for the cat with ps ps ps, when it passes by. Knows how to say hello/goodnight etc and when. He also knows he can trick some people by looking away when you give him food, so you get closer, then he bites. His wing was broken as a baby after getting stuck in a thorny bush, that's how we came to have him in case anyone is curious. He can't fly.