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Cities confront animals with a range of novel challenges and opportunities. These often require flexible and innovative behaviour, with comparative studies suggesting that bird species with larger brain size are both more innovative and better urban adaptors.
We are investigating how sulphur-crested cockatoos innovate in response to urban challenges, and how new innovative behaviours spread within and between social groups. In 2023-2025, we have presented wild, habituated birds with different kinds of 'innovation puzzle-boxes' across the urban matrix. By comparing our results with information on individuals and high-resolution remote-sensing of the urban environment, we can identify predictors of variation in innovation at the individual and group level, and across environments.
"One shot innovation task" placed in tree near to urban cockatoo roost by PhD candidate Lisa Fontana (see below link for paper).
Cockatoo solving a "multi-lever" food dispenser. Unlike the one-shot task, this can be solved multiple times, allowing us to ask how knowledge of innovations spreads between birds and across groups.
Visiting master's student Nikola Schloglova setting up a multi-access innovation puzzle, with eager participants ready and waiting to be tested on their innovatiive abilities.
Recent Scientific Publications:
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