Abstract
The trap-tube task has become a benchmark test for investigating physical causality in vertebrates. In this task, subjects have to retrieve food out of a horizontal tube using a tool and avoiding a trap hole in the tube. Great apes and corvids succeeded in this task. Parrots with relative brain volumes comparable to those of corvids and primates also demonstrate high cognitive abilities. We therefore tested macaws, a cockatoo, and keas on the trap-tube paradigm. All nine parrots failed to solve the task. In a simplified task, trap tubes with a slot inserted along the top were offered. The slot allowed the birds to move the reward directly with their bills. All but one individual solved this task by lifting the food over the trap. However, the parrots failed again when they were prevented from lifting the reward, although they anticipated that food will be lost when moved into the trap. We do not think that the demanding use of an external object is the main reason for the parrots’ failure. Moreover, we suppose these parrots fail to consider the trap’s position in the beginning of a trial and were not able to stop their behaviour and move the reward in the trap’s opposite direction.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the zoo “Tierpark Hagenbeck” for enabling us to perform our study and “Tiergarten Schönbrunn” for the long-term loan of a kea. Thanks goes to Daniela Lahn and Sabine Rechberger for helping to collect the data, to Sabine Tebbich for valuable discussion, and to Amanda Greer for improving the English and three anonymous referees for improvement of the manuscript. The kea part of the study was financed by the Austrian Science Foundation (grant P15027-BIO). We thank Werner Zecchino for sponsoring the kea lab.
Ethical standards
The presented experiments comply with the current laws of the countries in which they were performed.
Conflict of interest
Herewith we declare that the authors do not have any conflict of interest.
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10071_2010_347_MOESM2_ESM.m2v
The cockatoo (Elvis) on his 18th trial on the slot tube. Here he shows the behaviour of taking the reward out of the trap for the first time after he accidently cracked the nut within the tube. Thereupon he pushes the part of the nutshell away from the trap out of the tube (not shown in the movie). (M2V 5451 kb)
10071_2010_347_MOESM3_ESM.m2v
The macaw (Stumpi) on his 18th trial on the two-trap tube. Here he lifts (unnecessarily) the reward over the non-functional trap. (M2V 4690 kb)
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Liedtke, J., Werdenich, D., Gajdon, G.K. et al. Big brains are not enough: performance of three parrot species in the trap-tube paradigm. Anim Cogn 14, 143–149 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-010-0347-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-010-0347-4