Birds ‘are like babies in playing with objects’

TWO TYPES of bird learn about how objects work by playing with them in a similar way to human babies, according to Yorkshire researchers.

A study, led by researchers at the Universities of York and St Andrews, demonstrated that New Caledonian crows and kea parrots were able to solve tasks more successfully if they had explored the object beforehand.

It has long been thought that playful exploration allows animals to gather information about their physical world, in the same way that human infants learn about their world through play.

In one of the first direct tests of this hypothesis, scientists studied two bird species to understand how they interact with objects before, during and after a task involving that object.

Dr Katie Slocombe, from the University of York’s Department of Psychology, said: “Both species of bird are known for exploring objects in different ways.

“The New Caledonian crow uses objects in the wild and the kea parrot is known for often being destructive in its play back in its native New Zealand.

“We found that both species were better at selecting the correct tools to solve a task if they had the opportunity to explore them beforehand, suggesting that they were learning something about the properties of them as they interacted with them.”