Can you not bear to eat kid without strangle them in tomato ketchup ? Perhaps you like todip yours in a Wendy ’s Frosty . Well , it turns out this form of behavior does n’t seem to be undivided to world – a new study has discover some Goffin ’s cockatoos ( Cacatua goffiniana ) roll in the hay a condiment too .
The idea for the discipline came about by chance ; on a November morning in 2022 , investigator at the Goffin lab at the University of Veterinary Medicine , Vienna , notice two of the birds dunking their breakfast of cooked white potato into some blueberry - season soya yoghurt .
Previously , the lab haddiscoveredthat some cockatoo like their snacks soggy , plume dry rusk in water probably to change its texture – similar to how some humans bask dunking a cheeky biscuit or three into a cup of tea .
Patiently awaiting the perfect level of sog.Image credit: Messerli Forschungsinstitut/Vetmeduni
What was the ground for souse in yogurt this fourth dimension around ? Perhaps it was forflavor , the researcher theorized , though there was only one existingobservational studyfrom the 1960s that suggested animals like to add feel to their intellectual nourishment , and that was in Nipponese macaque .
To find out more , the team observed 18 cockatoos from the science laboratory wipe out breakfast on another 14 occasions , during which the birds were presented with their food bowl and three dunk option : fresh urine , blueberry soya bean yogurt , and impersonal soy yogurt as a control .
Their observation revealed that nine out of the 18 cockatoos dunked their solid food into yogurt . “ Not all cockatoo in our radical , however , showed this dipping of their solid food , ” pronounce study co - author Jeroen Zewald in astatement . “ That probably means this is a new innovation by the cockatoos that is not part of their normal conduct . ”
The skirt also never dunked their food into piddle , which rule out that they were doing it for pluck intention .
On the other hand , there were multiple indicators that they were dip to add flavor . The wench showed a orientation for the blueberry yogurt over the neutral - flavored option , and also only dunked certain foods in it ; they were n’t devotee of yogurt - coated Brassica oleracea botrytis or Daucus carota sativa , for example , but do it swan a bit ofpastaaround in it .
In fact , “ they commonly start deplete the yogurt - covered portion of the solid food , sometimes even re - dunking it after most yoghourt was get , ” the generator note . We ’ve all been there – some chips just are n’t the same without the dip .
And so , after eliminating other rationality ground on their observations , the investigator concluded that the cockatoo were dunking to add somepizazzto their food .
“ Although we normally gainsay our cockatoo by give them a problem and then observing how they lick it , this time the cockatoo showed that they had discovered solutions to problems that we had not even retrieve of , ” said study cobalt - author Alice Auersperg . “ obviously , their solid food was n’t tasty enough . ”
Even though their wild counterparts have not been seen dipping their nutrient in liquids , it ’s not necessarily a vast surprise that this deportment has explicate in the laboratory ’s cockatoo – these birds are super smart .
“ These cockatoo are do it for usingtoolsin advanced elbow room in the wild . For example , they make sharp wooden objects from tree limb to open firmly - shell yield , ” explain Auersperg . “ These form of discoveries in tool use and food preparation show us how elastic , innovative , and curious these animals are . ”
The study is published in the journalCurrent Biology .
