Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Biol Lett. 2011 Dec 23;7(6):825-8. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.0388. Epub 2011 Jun 2.
This study depicts how captive kea, New Zealand parrots, which are not known to use tools in the wild, employ a stick-tool to retrieve a food reward after receiving demonstration trials. Four out of six animals succeeded in doing so despite physical (beak curvature) and ecological (no stick-like materials used during nest construction) constraints when handling elongated objects. We further demonstrate that the same animals can thereafter direct the functional end of a stick-tool into a desired direction, aiming at a positive option while avoiding a negative one.
本研究描绘了新西兰鹦鹉——卡卡啄羊鹦鹉,在接受示范试验后,如何使用棍棒工具来获取食物奖励。尽管在处理细长物体时存在物理(喙的曲率)和生态(巢的建造过程中不使用类似棍棒的材料)限制,但六只动物中有四只成功做到了这一点。我们进一步证明,相同的动物可以将棍棒工具的功能端引导到所需的方向,在积极选项上瞄准,同时避免消极选项。