‘Interspecies innovation arms race’

As reported in The Guardian:

Cockatoos and humans are locked in what Australian researchers have described as “an interspecies innovation arms race”.

Sydney residents are resorting to increasingly sophisticated measures to prevent sulphur-crested cockatoos from opening and raiding household wheelie bins, detailed in new research published in the journal Current Biology.

The study, led by Dr Barbara Klump of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany, documented 52 combinations of techniques used by humans to deter the birds from their bin-raiding antics.

The challenge for humans is to secure the bins in a way that still allows them to be opened and emptied by automated garbage trucks.

The most basic cockatoo deterrent was the use of a brick or other heavy item to weigh down a lid. “We have definitely seen cockatoos frequently pushing those off,” said Dr Richard Major, a senior fellow at the Australian Museum and one of the study’s co-authors. “It’s a lot of fun watching a cockatoo pushing a brick off – you almost sense the satisfaction it gets as it does it.”