Scientists taught a cockatoo named Figaro to combine tools and “golf” for reward

Figaro the cockatoo displays his "primate level" combination tool-using skills by playing a cockatoo version of "golf," and choosing the correct hole for a cashew reward. Two other cockatoos figured out different tool-using techniques to achieve the same result. (Goffin Lab) Figaro the cockatoo displays his "primate level" combination tool-using skills by playing a cockatoo version of "golf," and choosing the correct hole for a cashew reward. Two other cockatoos figured out different tool-using techniques to achieve the same result. (Goffin Lab)

Several years ago, we introduced Ars readers to Figaro, a precocious male Goffin's cockatoo kept in captivity and cared for by scientists in the "Goffin lab" at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. Figaro showed a surprising ability to manipulate single tools to maneuver a tasty nut out of a box. Other cockatoos who repeatedly watched Figaro's performance were also able to do so. Now, Figaro and his cockatoo cronies are back, having learned how to combine tools-in this case, a stick and a ball-to play a rudimentary form of "golf," according to a new paper published in the journal Scientific Reports.

As Ars' Science Editor John Timmer explained in 2012, tool use was once thought to be one of the defining features of humans, but examples of it were eventually observed in primates and other mammals. Then birds were observed using tools in the wild, although this behavior was limited to corvids (crows and jays). Parrots, by contrast, have mostly been noted for their linguistic skills, and there has only been limited evidence that they use anything resembling a tool in the wild. Primarily, they seem to use external objects to position nuts while feeding.

Then along came Figaro. Figaro was playing with a stone one day in the Goffin Lab at the University of Vienna's Department of Cognitive Biology, led by Alice Auersperg. He accidentally dropped the stone behind a metal divider.

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