In a surprising revelation, a study published in the journal Biology Letters has uncovered a fascinating new behavior in Goffin’s cockatoos housed at the Goffin Lab in Vienna. The researchers at the lab were caught off-guard when they observed some of the white parrots engaging in an unusual ritual during their daily luncheon.
The typical lunch for the cockatoos consists of dried fruit, seeds, cornflakes, bird pellets, and rusk or zwieback — a type of dry, twice-baked toast. Most of the birds eagerly consume the meal without any modifications. However, a few of the cockatoos have been observed customizing their meals by dunking the rock-hard rusk into a tub of water before consuming it.
Head of the Goffin Lab, Alice Auersperg, expressed her amazement at the behavior, stating, “To go through all this effort just to change the texture of your food is quite impressive.”
According to the researchers, this is the first documented instance of parrots engaging in food-dunking behavior. The activity, which has also been observed in grackles and crows, was an unexpected discovery for the lab, which usually focuses on planned experiments to test the birds’ problem-solving abilities.
The scientists were surprised to find that some of the birds displayed considerable patience and impulse control, waiting for the toast to soften for up to 30 seconds. Remarkably, some birds even retrieved pieces of rusk that had fallen to the bottom of their cages and soaked them in the water before consuming them.
Louis Lefebvre, an expert on bird behavior at McGill University, commended the study, citing the element of adding value to the food by softening it through dunking.
While the origins of the dunking behavior remain unclear, the researchers are eager to determine whether more birds will adopt the behavior and whether wild Goffin’s cockatoos would exhibit the same habit if given the proper resources.
The unexpected discovery has opened a new line of research for the scientists at the Goffin Lab, prompting them to keep a close eye on the birds during their mealtimes. As Jeroen Zewald, a doctoral student at the lab stated, “Instead of presenting them with a problem, they basically had a tiny problem of their own, and they solved it.”