While birds using tools is by no means a new observation, researchers have discovered several members of a captive population of parrots known as greater vasa parrots that use tools to create a nutritional supplement – calcium powder.
The findings, which were detailed in a paper published in the journal Biology Letters, are unique in that they mark the first time a bird species has ever been documented using tools to create a nutritional supplement.
Megan Lambert with the University of York’s Department of Psychology, the study’s lead author, told Discovery News that “it’s difficult to know how this behavior started” because the very first time the tool use occurred with this purpose in mind was not observed, however, the parrot breed’s social system and tool use “would certainly support a scenario where tool use was transmitted socially after observing one innovative individual.”
Without witnessing the first tool using event, it’s difficult to know how this behavior started, but the social system of these birds, and the fact that they share tools, would certainly support a scenario where tool use was transmitted socially after observing one innovative individual.
In other words, the researchers believe that one particularly intelligent parrot could have sparked the technique that was later emulated by others.
The parrots in question, whose eggshells are heavily composed of calcium, were observed breaking apart shells with pebbles and then using the stones to grind the shells into a fine powder which they would eventually consume.
Birds sometimes “require an extra boost” of calcium to assist with egg formation during the breeding season, according to Lambert. This might explain why the birds exhibited such a high interest in the shells right before the beginning of their breeding season, however, Lambert says that additional research will be necessary in order “to determine whether this regularly occurs before the breeding season in these birds.”
While mammals are capable of efficiently storing calcium in their skeleton, birds are not, Lambert indicated.
The study, which examined ten captive parrots, was conducted by psychologists at the University of St Andrews and the University of York.
In addition to notably being the first observation of bird tool use to create a dietary supplement, it’s also the first time greater vasa parrots, known formally as Coracopsis vasa, have been observed using tools.
The use of tools by nonhuman animals remains an exceedingly rare phenomenon. These observations provide new insights into the tool-using capabilities of parrots and give rise to further questions as to why this species uses tools (…) Tool use could reflect an innate predisposition in the parrots, or it could be the result of individual trial and error learning or some form of social learning. Whether these birds also use tools in the wild remains to be explored, but ultimately these observations highlight the greater vasa parrot as a species of interest for further studies of physical cognition.
Lambert was quoted by Phys.org as having noted that the “use of tools by nonhuman animals remains an exceedingly rare phenomenon.”
An unrelated study has found that female chimps make hunting weapons after a troop of chimps were sighted wielding spears used to stab prey.
