from Hacker News

Parrot in captivity manufactures tools, something not seen in the wild

by glymor on 11/7/12, 8:40 AM with 30 comments

  • by mark_l_watson on 11/7/12, 3:20 PM

    I have owned a small Myers Parrot for about ten years.

    He is very clever in understanding his environment. Once he raised one wing over his head and lowered the other wing to make his shoulders narrow enough to walk between two obstacles. He also has a strange desire to explore dark closets - odd since he has poor night vision.

    I advise against anyone buying a Parrot unless they have a lot of free time. A Parrot will thrive in captivity if he has a lot (a lot!) of attention, otherwise Parrots in captivity will be miserable. For example, my wife and I need to keep our bird in the same room where we are hanging out - it does not do at all to leave a Parrot by themselves and we only do so when we go out to some social event. When we travel I hire a bird specialist to care for him. I have mostly been retired for a long time, so he is a good pet for me.

  • by kriro on 11/7/12, 1:28 PM

    What I'd be interested in would be the question if he hides his tool or what happens to the tool after he gets the nut. Is there any sort of reuse or does he build a new tool each time.

    Would he recognize premade tools, maybe pick the best one from a collection of tools present?

    There's also some potential in seeing if birds exibit certain types of economic behaviour. If it would be somewhat tedious to collect two nuts per day and he could live off one, would he save some nuts to build a more complex tool (requireing a day+ of build time) that would allow him to harvest a "free" nut each day etc.

  • by oneandoneis2 on 11/7/12, 11:11 AM

    Behold the creative powers of boredom!

    The life of parrots in the wild is too eventful for them to bother with making tools :)

  • by lancefisher on 11/7/12, 5:07 PM

    Somewhat related is the crow machine. It trains crows to collect and deposit money in exchange for a treat: http://www.josh.is/crow-machine/

  • by tathagatadg on 11/7/12, 1:32 PM

    Before it was only the chimps and other apes, and now dolphins, then the parrots ... we have to step up our game people! Next thing you know they are submitting pull requests ...

  • by nodata on 11/7/12, 1:13 PM

    Interesting that the other parrot learnt by copying the first parrot, not buy independently coming up with the idea itself.

  • by hughlomas on 11/7/12, 4:09 PM

    My favorite example of tool use in birds is this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYZnsO2ZgWo of a crow that actually bends a piece of wire to form a hook. There are some details about it here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0808_020808_...

  • by pfortuny on 11/7/12, 2:40 PM

    What I wonder is: why is this so relevant if birds have been building nests for quite a while yet? I do not get the great difference... And please do not mention the 'tool' word: a nest is something MUCH more complicated and abstract than a tool.

  • by nsns on 11/7/12, 4:19 PM

    Ever heard of Anthropocentrism? Why would tool use be confined to humans? When a baby (or a cub) learns to control his/her eye muscles, or her/his hands; when a bird builds a nest, it's tool use. Tool use is simply an extension of learning how to use our bodily organs, nothing special about it, all living creatures do that.

  • by ISL on 11/7/12, 3:59 PM

    Coolest thing on HN in at least a week. Thanks!

  • by sayYaeah on 11/7/12, 11:09 AM

    I'd hire him.