Cocky Cognition Project

It is well established that parrots worldwide have relatively high intelligence levels compared to other bird groups, yet only a paucity of research exists on even the most iconic Australian parrots. Consequently, we set out to fill this knowledge gap. Christina Zdenek, Karri Neldner, and Chris Hay teamed up to quantify tool-use and problem-solving abilities of Australian Psittacines (parrots and cockatoos).

MEET US

Christina (middle) studied Palm Cockatoo behaviour with The Palm Cockatoo Project for seven years. Karri (left) has extensive experience working on cognition and behaviour studies of chimpanzees and human children. Chris (right) has spent decades educating the public about wildlife.

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WHAT WE DID

We provided enriching tasks to over 50 Australian captive Psittacines in five zoos across east and southern Australia. Using established bird-cognition tests, we offered food-rewarded puzzles to quantify any variation in mental capacity across species.

WHY WE DID IT

Investigating the problem-solving and tool-use abilities of Australian Psittacines will allow us to understand more about the minds and intelligence of Australian native parrots in the context of Psittacines worldwide. Furthermore, due to our inclusion of a number of species, we believe that our project may provide clues about the ecological and evolutionary pressures that encouraged intelligence and tool use to evolve in some species more than others. We also hope to provide insight into how to improve captive husbandry stimulation for Psittacines worldwide.

Working at Rockhampton Zoo with Kate Beskeen (2nd from left) and colleagues.

Sandy McStay from Lonepine Koala Sanctuary played a critical role in our project. She not only gave us access and intel about many birds in her care, but she also bravely administered our puzzles to a very co-dependent bird named Caroline, a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo.

DATA ANALYSIS

We have 100s of hours of footage to analyse, and this will take a lot of time, especially considering we all have other full-time jobs. But, we're slowly chipping away, trying to meet weekly (Covid-19 and PhD thesis submissions changed this for a while), working toward a scientific publication and definitive answers to the questions we set out to ask in February 2019!

MEET THE BIRDS