Aussie cockatoos use their beaks and claws to turn on water fountains

On a hot day, a few glugs from a park drinking fountain can be a major relief — and some of Sydney’s cockatoos agree.

The brainy city-dwelling parrots have figured out how to twist on drinking fountains for a sip, researchers report June 4 in Biology Letters. 

Lucy Aplin — a cognitive ecologist at the Australian National University in Canberra — and her colleagues had been studying sulfur-crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita) and their relationship with the urban environment. In September 2018, Barbara Klump — a behavioral ecologist now at the University of Vienna — was collecting data on cockatoos’ foraging patterns at a mixed-use park in western Sydney and saw the birds using a drinking fountain. After a survey of more local drinking fountains and park rangers confirming that this was something the parrots regularly did, the researchers set up cameras near a fountain in Charlie Bali Reserve to record the behavior.

The parched parrots grip the fountain with one foot, and twist the handle with the other, compressing the spring inside and releasing water flow. The cockatoos must lean to the side with their body to provide enough force for the maneuver before tilting back to drink, which requires a lot of coordination, Aplin says. 

The team tracked specific cockatoos and their local fountain use over time and found that about 70 percent of the local population attempted to use the fountains, and half were successful. The widespread nature of the drinking suggests that this may be a local cultural tradition among the cockatoos, says Aplin. Cockatoos in the south of the city have developed their own tradition of lifting open the lids on household trash cans.

“Animal cultures are increasingly well-described across many different groups, but drinking cultures specifically are quite rare,” she says, citing chimpanzees drinking from moss sponges.

Aplin wants to investigate why the cockatoos go through so much time and effort to use the fountains when streams are nearby. The birds congregate at the fountain, and in most cases patiently wait their turn to drink.

“They appear to be quite willing to queue for a considerable amount of time,” Aplin says, sometimes as long as 10 minutes.

Maybe the fountains are safe, relatively predator-free places to rehydrate. Perhaps it’s not about the fountain’s utility at all but about promoting social cohesion. Or maybe the water just tastes better than the contents of a muddy creek.

“I think all three are possible,” Aplin says.