Only SOME Cockatoos can solve this puzzle. Why?
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- čas přidán 18. 12. 2023
- I get visited by a lot of cockatoos, but only some are able to solve the puzzles I make for them. Why is this, and what makes a clever cocky?
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5 years from now: *Making cockatoos figure out quantum gravity for treats.*
That sounds like a really dumb idea for a version of humans in a sci-fi novel.
Alien: "So, how did you figure out FTL?"
Humans: "Oh, we trained the parrots to do the necessary calculations and engineering for us for treats."
Aliens: "...what?"
I say moving on to marine mammals is the way to go. This will be a bit of a rant, *But stick with me here it will be worth it* :
Not only are dolphins and whatnot potentially near human levels of intelligence*, but Sperm Whales have the largest brains of any known animal *and* a brain to body ratio comprable to humans (if not better). Likewise for Neuron Density/Complexity.
*ANYWHO* back to goofy plotting:
Humans didn’t do anything too interesting until a Stable Food Supply (or at least not needing to spend as much time hunting and/or gathering), and *Data Collection + Storage* and Analysis/Communication of all of it happened (Culture:Government, Trade, Science, etc)
Marine Mammals *may* have Culture/Dialects, and are very social + demonstrate “group hunting” etc
*THUS*
I say we give them Brain-Computer-Interfaces (Full on BCI may be difficult due to waterproofing and *ethics* don’t wan’t to hurt whales and all that), and see where that goes.
A computer like those with that text invented for Monkeys/Apes…or even just puzzles like this…would be the way to go in my opinion!
One HELL of a rant, but i hope i have convinced you to join the cult of *rambling about whale puzzles*
(And kept it moderately on-topic lol)
(Long Live the Whale Overlords?) (although hopefully their smarter ways lead to less violent forms of government?)
@@twobladedswordsandmauls2120I *need* this in my life LMAO, it’s a more logical, but still as funny, version of the “this runs in squirrel power”.
Also surprisingly credible given the Pidgeon Derived Precision Guided Munitions from WW2’s DARPA types!
(Sidenote a replication of that type of stuff…minus the blowing up part obviously, would he really neat! Popeye Plays Pong!)
Followed by the Blockbuster movie "Planet of the Cockatoos".
this had me dead for a hot minute@@twobladedswordsandmauls2120
It’s cute that they’re slowly getting more comfortable with you since they stick around when you bring out or adjust the puzzles
The way Edweena stood around like 'oh, good, the technician is here to fix it' 😁
@@unpunlievable “Garçon!”
@@unpunlievablethe betrayal she witnessed
he probably never tries to touch them
Conditioned behaviour... they simply associate him with food...
AKA classical conditioning...
Pavlos dogs....
Keep stuff consistent, like, cilinders are to be pulled, tringes to be rotated etc. And see if they learn those coorelations, then enabling them to solve more complex puzzles by remmembering that.
colour consistency might help too.
And in no time they will learn to dissasemble cars. :) jk
@@MinePossu like the monkeys at Longleat Safari Park, quite notable for their destructive capability on people's vehicles >:)
The monkeys at Longleat a wildlife park in the UK remove windscreen wiper systems from the cars that drive through as the screen wash contain sweetness and a little alcohol. They also love to remove the reversing parking sensors for some reason.
I feel like that's the exact opposite of the entire point of these videos. He said in the video he's not training them. Keeping stuff consistent and building on previous things literary how you train any and all animals.
i think more bird ergonomics have to come into play. Knobs that are designed to be manipulated by beaks at standing height, levers that can be pulled by claws, etc.
"birdganomics" lol
You might be missing the point here, the object of the experiment is not to just feed the birds by helping them with more simple manipulations. By observing some birds solving seemingly impossible puzzles and others not, it is demonstrated that some of the Cockatoos are more adept at puzzle solving than others.
@@teeanahera8949 A puzzle is more pure if its known to be a puzzle. We know what a puzzle is, and all intentionally made puzzles we encounter are designed for human interaction. A puzzle to test birds should at least be built to allow a bird to operate the mechanisms in a familiar fashion - working around human controls makes the puzzle solving process muddier
@@speakp4ngolin A puzzle is *less* pure if it's known to be a puzzle
@@TheRealMycanthrope A puzzle unknown is a puzzle ignored
I love the fact that even in bird world, the bullies are stupider than the bullied 😂
I love that their first instinct is to throw everything they don't need off the balcony. Might be interesting to give them a puzzle they HAVE to use the tool for.
Birds LOVE throwing things off surfaces! They're worse than cats!
In a lot of cases, they will observe the object falling too & seem perplexed but curious about why some objects fall, while they fly instead
He already did that. He had a stick they were supposed to use to waggle out some food but they found a solution that didn't need the tool. Angus even says in this video they seem to prefer their natural tool to solve things.
I wonder if these enrichment puzzles are making them smarter. Like, somewhere, someone is cursing you because their local birds figured out how pick locks from your tutelage.
"Hi, this is the lock picking cockatoo, and today I have a lock from Masterlock. I'm going to use this turning tool in forty thousandths, and this wave rake..." ?
I hope so 😂
"Here is the tool Edweena and I made. "@@llearch
I wonder if Edweena's second attempt went back to the top because she'd just been there to witness the seeds being put in from that top section?
Regardless, this is truly fascinating!
popeye initially went for the top too on his second test. They both sorta did a "well if the top is loose, that's a lot easier than this twisting business so lets try that first." Popeye is just more used to having to be clever so moved on quickly. No different from people where we constantly switch mindsets based on context (if asked brainteasers, we're looking for trick questions but less on guard in everyday life, we look for chess movement solutions when playing chess but think about numbers playing sudoku, etc)
Stronger smell at the top where the food is. Wild animals are likely to rely on that first. Then problem solve.
@@The_Balroggas a whole, birds don't really have a sense of smell, but this is true for most other vertebrates! Birds are just little weirdos. And then there's the kiwi, little weirdo among little weirdos, who re-evolved a sense of smell.
Maybe they just always try the easiest obvious solution first, because if it works that time it's still a much better way than playing the riddle. Imagine if you had a door that needs to be lockpicked every time, wouldn't you still quickly check if it's open first each time?
She may have remembered the knob, but a bonanza of seeds were right under the clear panel, so why not give it another quick try?
Try Using the wood pegs that they already know to pull out, to hold the front lock on Love all your vids.
4 or 6 pegs, several on each side.
First one, next time two or three and so on. @@jimbarchuk
the ones that already know that behavior will simply use their knowledge. That would be effectively a trained behaviour rather than more complex problem solving. He's effectively already done that. The point here was the see if they could recognise the triangular wedge shaped cogs on the side as similar to the one on the front used to turn the dispenser.@@jimbarchuk
I think it fails when you add too many barriers at once and they get frustrated. If you added just the black bar until they well understood it, then one screw, then the second, then the bow, they'd probably learn the sequence. But without immediate rewards for a single tadk completion, they don't understand if it was correct or not.
This is exactly what he was talking about when he discussed "sequential trained behavior". They aren't smart enough to get the whole sequence in one go, but if you teach them each step individually then they will remember the solutions they learned and chain them together.
when you ask "why" cockatoos keep coming to solve your puzzles: its fun! they love playing (many birds do, especially smart ones like cockatoos), and thats why they chew on everything anyways, you giving them food gives more benefits for them. also, love these videos, its so charming to see how they interact
Parrot intelligence is on the level of human toddlers, so you could look at children’s toys for inspiration.
The flag pulling starting at 6:45 seemed personal to me 😂
Love these bird videos, thanl you so much for sharing and for the kindness and respect you shoe them
Like others said: I think these birds *can* do multi-stage puzzles, but like you said: each stage needs to be something they learned before. Securing the bar with sticks or dowels, or maybe even rope. Or have them learn with a new puzzle that unscrewing something can lead to a reward (and use a different thread so it only takes like 2 complete turns). THEN integrate that into a multi-stage puzzle.
Love these bird videos btw!
or a twist and lock with lugs instead of screw threads
that would just show memory, not additional problem solving skills
@@aperinich But if each intermediate stage doesn't immediately reward them, and they persist anyway by trying other methods that they know, that's a good indicator of problem-solving.
Having watched one of these creatures systematically dismantle an outdoor door mat over a period of weeks, with no apparent expectation of reward, I'm convinced that they just like doing stuff.
Don't we all get fidgety now and then 😂 Gotta have something to do with my hands, they gotta have something to do with their beaks.
lol I have a range of different ropes hanging for mine to play with. I had ropes to hang bowls on with food, but they tangled them up & pulled them up out of my reach, but continued playing with the bowls & more particularly the ropes & eventually I realised it was just the ropes they were interested in, so started giving them a range of different ones, cotton, sisal, seagrass (which is what doormats are commonly made of) etc etc & they just love feeling the textures. Be careful with cotton though as it doesn't decompose in their gut. Sisal & seagrass are the more recommended options, along with things like straw brooms, palm leaf, bamboo etc etc. Cotton's ok if they can't chew it apart though & they do seem to really love the soft texture
They are makers.
One of my favorite things about your cockatoo videos is how they demonstrate that intelligence and problem solving isn't just about finding the one correct solution, but using what you have to do what's best for you. for cockatoos, that includes just tearing the puzzle apart, because they've got excellent beaks for doing so. It'd be silly not to tear an obstacle apart if that's easier than finding a clever solution. Its wonderful 😊
It's amazing, the time these birds put in, training you to feed them.
I'd be curious if, in addition to the shape of knobs, you associate color with function. (For example, lavender, triangular knob for twisting, white cylinder for dowel, etc.)
I love birds and it's so cool to see this behavior.
Yeah! I'm really keen to see if they associate colour with solving the puzzles.
I think if you use pegs to lock the turning mechanism first, they'll understand that they'll have to remove the lock.
Once they figure out that removing the lock is a prerequisite, you can gradually make it more challenging to remove the lock.
Screws may be a bit too difficult, especially in combination with locks which they have never seen before.
The problem with doing it that way is that it'll teach them that the lock is in the way which defeats the purpose. They're supposed to notice that the lock is blocking the knob and then investigate how to remove the lock. By doing it this way he demonstrates they lack a casual understanding of physical obstruction and multi-step problem solving.
Hell yeah more birds
I love how much intelligence and personality these birds possess. Also like you said, they seem to enjoy puzzle solving, despite having developed higher intelligence entirely independently from mammals.
Same for their love to dance, as shown by Snowball back in the day.
I am amazed at how close they let you get. Must be the years of feed them and giving them puzzles to solve.
The cockatoos in the cities down there are pretty well habituated at this point. There are a lot of videos of them being gregarious with people. They're like ducks in that way, only of course with parrot level smarts
Only days, not years to get them to interact. Cockatoos, Butcherbirds, Magpies and Kookaburras, Rainbow lorikeets among many will learn within a few days that you’re not a threat and food is the reward for allowing close proximity.
@@teeanahera8949 exectly, they're pretty cluey when it comes to food
animals become accustomed to humans, especially when food is involved, i can easily catch the city pigeons in my area, they dont care that im there
I got some wild ones eating out of my hand after like a week. They're honestly not picky.
Edweena doesn't have object permenance problems, it's just that she learns crazy fast. Those few seconds with the empty puzzle are enough to convince her out didnt work
I love how you are arguably one of CZcams's leading 3d print channels, and also cockatoo intelligence mapping/cognition testing 😂😂
The most beautiful combo, love from NZ bro
I'd love to see more about their skill retention over time. If today a blue lever gives the seed and tomorrow its a blue button, will they go for the shape (lever) or the color (blue)?
These are the kinds of trials I'd love to see. I'd feel he's not using the visual and tactile aspects of the puzzles to their full advantage. This is really interesting and I love seeing the birds, so don't get me wrong. He seems like a really nice guy that wants to learn about these little guys as much as we'd like to. I just wonder what would happen if he started using color and shape to communicate actions more clearly to them, what might happen, you know?
I wish we had such a diverse population in my area. We have grackles further in town, which would be interesting to play with. We also have small green parrots. They're usually a bit further into Mexico though.
You could try to make a contraption with multiple "simple" tasks that show how to solve each step and make one combining all steps at the end.
This reminds of how Mark Rober did the octopus training 👍👍
honestly, this is a great case study for bird proof trashcan design. If they dont get sequential tasks, seems like thats how locking mechanisms to keep them out of garbage should work
not first because i know somebody else would already comment that
i love these cockatoo vids every year. the puzzles just keep getying more intricate and theyr just so silly creachrs to watch
Could you try using dowels to hold the knob lock? Maybe put the dowel puzzle next to this one to establish a sequence
Now THIS is the quality Cockatoo content I subscribed for!
I wish I could purchase one of these, or knew someone with a 3D printer. I need something like this for my African Grey. He never locked in a cage except at night so he wanders around the house looking for things to “do”. Most bird puzzles with nuts, bolts and washers are his favourite but if he sees you put it together, he figures it out TOO fast. 😂
Edweena didn't forget about the dial, as such. She just watched you put the seeds in through the top, and figured that that was where the solution was this time, until she went back around and was like "Oh yeah! I gotta spinnamajig it!".
And as to them getting stuck with the lock, nuts, and twine, there were just too many new additional steps added at once. If you had of added the lock, then each bolt, then the twine over 4 days, they would have figgured it all out.
“She just watched you put the seeds in through the top, and figured that that was where the solution was this time…”
That’s right-under most normal circumstances, the way something goes _in_ is usually the way it comes _out._ Seeing the seeds go in the top was a more powerful immediate stimulus than was the behavior previously learned.
Popeye might have also learned that the top is a fool's game after watching Chad fail to get into it, so he went for the next most interesting thing. He got to see that nothing interesting happens at the top, so learned pretty quickly that it's not worth the attention.
Another awesome video Angus. Like you said, these birds do your puzzles by choice, which makes it so much more profound and watchable. Keep going with it mate.
I think one of the reasons they struggled with the turning knobs is they can't see the mechanism, it goes back to the point you made about object permanence and the knob where if they can't see it they aren't thinking about it. They could turn the knob but it wouldn't be very obvious that doing so helps to remove it from the screw hole since they can't see much effect from just the half turn they'd be able to manage.
I'd actually like to see a similar puzzle but instead of unscrewing the locking bolts, have them slot into a clear twist lock on the side so that they can see the effect of turning the knobs. I'd be interested to see if that kind of sequential problem-solving can be done with an easier puzzle to investigate
"Oh so soothing calls." -- I had to laugh out loud when you said that.
Omg this made me realise that I have discovered your channel TWICE???? The first time was a long time ago when I was looking at smart birds, then just over a month ago I found you for 3D printing, now this vid makes me realise it's the same damn guy???? Algorithmically you're definitely doing something right!
I am an Edwina, and I'm loving this representation! 😆
It seems with the wild cockatoos, it's ALL about repetition. The captive octopus from Mark Rober's video (which octopi are just different beasts altogether in their complex skills) was wild, but did spend a decent amount of time being enveloped in human things.
These wild birds may be around humans a lot in their life, but they aren't AROUND humans a lot. As in, intimately around us. They don't get the benefit of each small exhange and cue that pet birds and other captive birds do to learn from. Humans are very different to each other too, so having this level of variability is just insane to expect them to understand from afar like that. Birds that do all these amazing puzzles do similar enough things to learn from, just as we've seen with Popeye and his associations. It doesn't necessarily have to be the exact same puzzle, but if they're similar enough in their key actions, then a cockatoo that's been exposed to those key actions repetitiously should be able to do them.
I've never had a cockatoo (despite wanting one: husband's allergic to birds). We have had cockatiels and such when I was younger, though. I watch A LOT of different sources on bird behavior, have taken animal behavior classes, etc. I'm not COMPLETELY unknowing, but I'd be interested in sicentific study for this. I know there are plenty of bird intellegence studies out there. It's just a matter of finding ones specific to these curiosities.
This is just my humble, inexperienced observation. I think the wild cockatoos only have so much processing power and memory for specific actions and whatnot. It seems that repetition, just like for humans, is how to move that experience along to long-term memory. It just seems to take a bit more work for them compared to us, on average.
My goffin cockatoo is 17. I rescued her about 11 years ago. She has a very large cage that I got with her. She refuses to stay in it. It has a 3 stage lock on the door that must be done in a very specific order. She can master it in no time. If I must lock her in the cage, I have to lock it with a chain. Luckily she spends the day on her playstand perch.
Continuing on with the turning theme, I wonder if they’d be able to solve something that uses essentially an Archimedes screw or a bucket elevator to lift the seeds from the bottom of a container out of the top or side. So far all of your puzzles have involved seeds that are either at the bottom of a container they need to get into or at the top of a container and they need to get the seeds down. I wonder if they’d be able to figure out getting the seeds from the bottom to the top.
oh that'd be interesting!
I have a hanging bird feeder for smaller birds that cockies decided to try to land above & pull up with the ropes, which tipped everything off it, so I made them some little bowls on ropes that they could pull up from above & they LOVE them & do them with ease. Takes a little while for them to earn, but one of my smarter ones actually wrapped the rope around something, so that baby could pull it up only half way to get access to make it easier for it to learn & then stood back & encouraged the baby to have a go, while keeping the other cockies away & baby learnt it :)
So yes, they CAN pull upwards & enjoy doing so. He could start by just hanging the food in something attached to the top of the railing with a rope & then take it further from there :)
I think if you add the bar first, then add one screw, then the other screw, they'll figure it out. It's the layering thing like they do at the free flight zoo thing you mentioned.
Once the screws were removed, the removal of the bar was immediate, so that part obviously works with what they know already. Either using dowels so that it is a series of sequential pulling tasks to free the knob or having a separate test wherein they need to just unscrew something would probably be necessary as an intermediate step, because the only twisting they have experience with is something that only a small amount of turning starts to give rewards.
i aint even listening to what you're saying, i just like watching adorable cockatoo mohawks stick up
Add a peg with a spring return below the rotary output so they have to twist, then pull the peg to get a reward. This would be two separate tasks they've accomplished, but must be done in the correct order every time.
I wonder how crows/ravens would react to these puzzles.
They'd put them in the road and wait for an obliging vehicle to crush them.
I don’t think you’ve reached the end of their intelligence…I believe you’ve reached the end of their motivation. I have a cockatoo but I don’t treat train because I want my cockatoo to be happy. lol. Anyway, sometimes I give him little challenges and depending on his mood he will solve the problem or go back inside his cage to eat the food in his bowl. What if you filled the puzzle with only dried corn? Would Popeye try harder because it’s his favorite. I would be interesting if you were able to test their motivation for a treat vs difficulty of access.
i'm a little confused by the idea that treat training would make a cockatoo unhappy? maybe there's something i'm missing lol.
You know they actually do enjoy working for their food. Especially when its a pet bird.
@@durdleduc8520 just think of them as a 4 year old kid, a toy doesnt need treats to entertain them, just as candy every time they play would no be speacial.
@@Epicsting fair enough! but four year olds still like to learn things (and in the case where communication is limited, the only way you may be able to say "that's correct!" is with some candy or some play.)
I just want my birds to do what they want too. So I don’t treat train but my parrots are happy and well behaved. I want them to still have the chance to be “wild animals “ idk it’s just a personal preference and it works for us 😊
I can only imagine what it would be like to live in a place that had tropical birds like cockatoos flying around.
A puzzle based around teamwork might be interesting. Something that requires two birds to press on two different levers at the same time.
Pretty sure they could figure it out with some small adjustments. Try replacing the side cogs/wheels with sticks that they need to pull out. Pulling things is their first instinct, and the sticks might remind Popeye of earlier puzzles, especially if they're visually identical to the Dow puzzle. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if Popeye was able to figure out the cog by observing Chad or Edweena, like you said. So if you wanna stick with side cogs/wheels, try unlocking the barrier while Popeye is watching you. Then, roll the main cog/wheel to give him seeds, and put the barrier and its cogs back on to see if he'll figure it out.
love these cockatoo challenges.
how about combining parts of previous challenges ?
Like a mixture of wooden pegs and a spinny thing to get seed
You day they're fully wild birds but it's kinda like having an "outdoor cat". They keep coming back to you for food and live most of the time outside.
i had a few of these cockatoo as pets, yes, they are the ones made me realise how clever birds are
I'm wondering if Popeye noticed that brute force didn't work as he waited for Chad to go away, so he didn't even bother going for that first step. That's honestly kind of crazy, implying he has some kind of deductional skill that just needs to observe, not just interact.
it always brings a smile to my face to watch you and these birds. This really brightens my day… Thank you for what you do!
It makes sense that Popeye could solve immediately because he watched Chad fail at every other option. Definitely helps that you made the wheel and handle different colors. Made them stand out.
I'm not a professional animal behaviorist by any means, but I have a couple of thoughts/potential explanations for some of the things in the video:
1) When Edweena tries really hard to pry it open even though she should know that it doesn't work, that could be an "Extinction burst". Sometimes an animal has a behavior that's well-rehearsed because it tends to work often; if that behavior doesn't work in a specific situation, the behavior starts going "extinct", but there are "bursts" where the behavior comes back, often even more intensely than before. It's like the animal saying "are we definitely sure this doesn't work anymore? let's really try it to make sure."
2) As far as your question/musing (if you will) toward the end about why some of the birds are so into the puzzles - there's a phenomenon called "Contrafreeloading" where animals do prefer to work for the same reward instead of getting it for free. My personal mental explanation is that maybe it's evolutionarily more beneficial to get the same reward while *also* learning and/or acquiring skills than to just get the reward. So animals evolve to find these kinds of problems intrinsically "interesting".
I do think it should be possible to teach a bird to solve a multi-stage puzzle like this. It's just a matter of splitting the stages more, so that they have a chance to see when their actions are actually resulting in "progress" in some way. Like you said, having dowels that pull out instead of twist-off things could be a good start. Especially for the birds who already know that yanking dowels often means progress. It's really cool how they generalize stuff they've learned to new puzzles!
Then once they know that taking the things on the sides off is progress, they may be able to figure out the twist-off version.
Or maybe start even further back - have the bar there, preventing rotation, but not attached with anything.
Here's an interesting experiment that I've never heard of anybody trying: what if you rig it up so that a specific sound is played whenever they are making progress? Can they learn to use the sound as feedback that they are on the right track? Maybe practice first on puzzles they are already familiar with, so they don't have to be learning several things at once, and then increase complexity and see if they are using the sound cues.
I love your bird training videos! I really only started watching your channel because of these, then moved on to the neat engineering thingies, and only just recently actually got into 3D printing and started watching the "main" videos.
“I do think it should be possible to teach a bird to solve a multi-stage puzzle like this.”
They definitely can. Birds can learn sequences that are 16 or 18 steps long, maybe even more. You train them “backwards,” starting with the last step (e.g., turning the knob), then adding the next-to-last-step, then the one before that, and so on.
“Can they learn to use the sound as feedback that they are on the right track?”
Of course _but_ it’s a little difficult because the timing of the sound has to be when they are exhibiting the right behavior and not, say, when they've given up or are trying something else. (It’s essentially like encouraging your dog to “keep going!” but a bit more turned to the animals behavior.)
What about a puzzle with an AND gate, that requires two birds to open? Might be interesting
These videos are incredible. More please. My first thought is building on what you have done in the past and replace the side screw-in knobs with wooden dowels they can pull out. I would love to see if the wooden dowels make them remember. Thanks for what you do!
You could also explain the process of you (Makers Muse) creating increasingly complex challenges for the birds to solve as being "trained behavior."
I don't think Edweena forgot about the handle, she just saw you clearly putting the seeds in through the top after failing to get them by twisting the handle, and switched to the good ol' tactic of trying to pry the obstacle off by brute force and have all the seeds readily available.
This was a lot of fun. Looking forward to more bird puzzles :)
I personally think Popeye has enough theory of mind to know that the other birds chasing him away are dumber than them so they just wait until they give up.
That’s why they chase of Edweena because Popeye knows that Edweena is smart enough to solve the puzzle so Popeye has to secure the tasty treats by establishing a dominance behavior.
And awesome vid btw. I tried feeding the crows nearby for years to test and play with them but they seem less interested or are more frightened of humans so it’s nice to see the nice cooperation between you and the birds. They get snacks and you get someone to play with and awesome content.
I've had an umbrella cockatoo for 25 years living with me and they are crazy problem solvers.... oh, and they loooove hash browns!
I do think that they didn't associate "Turning" the knob with solving the puzzle, but rather shaking it, so maybe you should make a knob that only twists in one way so they can associate the puzzle with the reward
“They’re known for their soothing call.”
Cockatoos: *excitedly make the noise of garbage compactor on steroids*
planet of cockatoos: cockatoos rising. you have started something here.
Great to see an update on your cockatoo puzzles. And as with humans, bullies are usually not the sharpest tools in the shed
To be fair. I would also be confused. Evidence lies in many puzzle games that added more than one new mechanic at once leaving me INCREDIBLY confused and leading to me giving up... I relate to these beautiful birds a little there.
Bass lake having your own flock of birds that you really don't have to do anything that's so cool
Try making the side knobs the same colour and style as the front knob. This can test if the cockatoos can recognise that the same device works the same way even though it's in a different location.
A future puzzle idea: a Cooperative Puzzle? Can you get the two "smarter" birds to work together to solve a puzzle for a treat?
You could try making the side knobs the same color as the main reward knob. They might understand "turn grey knob" -> food , but not turn blue knob.
I have one thing to say to Popeye, thank you, thank you for encouraging me to start 3d printing for myself. I cant remember exactly which one, but a video of Popeye encouraged me to buy a 3d printer of my own.I saw a video of you making puzzles with 3d printing quite some time ago, encouraging me to do some research and finding out the usefulness of a 3d printer. Soon, I forgot about Popeye until I saw this video, this video instantly reminded me of the very thing that sparked my creativity, so thank you Popeye, and all the cockatoos that were in this journey.
talking about the training on individual problems and then sequencing them, if you made every puzzle with a consistent design language with each puzzle mechanism having the same color and shape as every other one requiring the same motion. so all dowels would be painted one color, all rotating bits being a triangle shape and the same blue, everything that is not a part of the puzzle being white or clear to make the puzzle more visually simple and easier and not provide any distraction from the actual working parts. if you did that and continued to run different puzzles with these birds you have consistently showing up you probably could increase the complexity over time, since they would learn what to do for each part individually and be able to hit them one at a time like in the example you showed of captive animals.
Truly fascinating.
I love those birds.
They have real personality
I like your idea of trying pegs on the sides instead of screws.
A hybrid idea; what if you made a channel in the feeder hub that requires they turn it left and then right. Turn it left the seeds fall into a pocket, turn it right they slide down to an opening. Sequential turning.
We need to train these birds to pick up trash in exchange for food or something.
It's interesting how rotation doesn't seem to be a natural/obvious motion for them to try, they're much more interested in prying and levering which makes sense given their natural environment. It makes you wonder how much of our mechanical intuition is shaped by experience of taps, screws, wheels. It makes our development of simple non-intuitive machines like the screw so much more fascinating!
maybe try making the central turn nob and the other turn nobs the same color and without holes. that could give them a hint as game logic. good game design has cue consistency
One thing you could try is having the same puzzle setup with slightly harder elements set up right next to each other. Maybe the first puzzle is the turning wheel with the second puzzle having two dowels that you take out to release the turning wheel.
I would have been interested in seeing what would have happened if it was turned sideways for the last one, so the side knob was in the same place as the knob that previously had to be activated first to get the treat
& I have no doubt they enjoy the puzzles, not just are forced to do them cause of a lack of dominance. I have a bird that was top of the pecking order until getting a leg injury & then dropped dramatically in it, but is now up near the top again, but he/she is super smart, but also, used to bite, so I did some training with him, as per pet bird training stuff online & he LOVED it, next day he jumped into my lap & climbed all over me & had fallen in love with me & showed no interest in biting at all, just loved that relationship building or whatever, I dunno, but it was pretty incredible the difference. That one is super smart & figures out all my puzzles near instantly & helps the babies learn them too & also disciplines the babies for me, teaching them the rules, such as not chewing my lattice (I was telling baby no & chasing him off when he chewed the lattice, so this cocky took over for me & started doing it on my behalf so as to ensure the food & games spot remained I think.
I give mine bells & various bird toys too, & mine come in just to play with them even if not getting food at the time, they totally enjoy the interactions & challenges (although I agree some of the bully birds don't & are useless at them)
In that staged training concept, maybe try a single screw on the front for the locking bar. And staged training is how humans learn complex technical stuff. As a guitarist, I had to start playing C scales, then basic partial string chords (like G over the 4 higher pitched strings and a single finger)... By the time I was 20, I was playing in bands, learning new covers and writing my own tunes. Then a friend bought a cassette portastudio, and in half I decade I was doing audio in the newsroom at the ABC in Hobart. Staged learning works because we learn a simple puzzle, then a slightly harder one, and so on. Going from the knob, to a pair of less evident knobs on the sides was about 3 or 4 stages jump - say, locking bar only, then locking bar with single front screw knob, then2 front screw knobs. Still impressed at cockatoo's ability to learn tools. We're supposed to be a higher species, but these cockatoos prove that learning isn't solely our domain. I love these puzzle videos. Great advocacy for biodiversity, too.
Use dowels on the side retainer pegs at first. Then, once they learn that, move back to one of them being a screw, then both.
I wish I had space and prowess to build things like this, but I'm just a cripple with parrots, and that will have to do. :) They make my life better. Keep the videos coming. Thanks.
Edwina didn’t forget. She knows she can turn the knob. But she was looking to get the seeds directly from the reservoir with less effort.
Popey having a mirror or a wall to stand up against might help him feel safer his blind spot makes him have to be more cautious ❤
To me this looks like he watched Edweena and learned what works from observation. Both of them seem to have a good grasp on operating that design now.
That or while watching chad fail, he skipped the usual things that had failed.
Make a contraption that feeds the birds after turning the blue handle, while maybe removing the grey one entirely at first, maybe that helps introduce the concept idk
I think twisting/screwing is more of a physical challenge for the birds. It might be more interesting to create a game involving simple actions but requiring more complex pattern recognition.
So basically these birds are cool pigeons! Really nice, its's great to see them interact with you!
I think you can do the sequential puzzle that they failed if you replaced the screws that held the barrier with dowels. They know dowels hold back the seeds and need to be removed from your prior puzzles, so i think that would provide the sequential learning they’d need to solve this.
Idk if you get them in super urban areas, but I’d love to see the problem solving capabilities of Brushtail possums! Our opossums in the US (about as distantly related to Aussie possums as a marsupial can get) aren’t very smart but they’re great at remembering where food is.
We do have them! They are very shy and nocturnal though. I hear them more than I see them, so it might be difficult testing them heh
I can’t believe you have those as wild birds where you live that’s so cool, here in America I have befriended quite a few American crows who are also amazingly smart
I love how Maker's Muse has become an animal psychology channel now haha.
I don't know if somebody had already suggested the idea, but what if you introduce some sort of trigger linkage mechanism?
You can use something like a lever connected by a Bowden cable (like those found on a bicycle).
It would be interesting to see what these birds can identify as a puzzle and how far away you can place a trigger before they no longer see it as a part of a system
I've no experience with cockatoos. But the caiques I know are extremely curious and playful.
They would love to deal with these kinds of things just for entertainment and the same thing may very well be true for cockatoos.
They desire more than just sitting around and getting fed all day, just like (the most of) us.
A couple of thoughts. Maybe using the same shape for the knob in the front and the screws on the side was confusing even though they were a different color. Try using a different shape maybe like (|) or (x) … one of the traditional screw heads or some other design like (v).
Try using a securing mechanism that they have successfully removed in the past on some other puzzle like the stick through a hole.
Also, have you tried a puzzle that uses a “foot powered” lever … such as a trash bin that flip open when we step on a lever at the floor level? This puzzle’s complexity would be increased by the fact that the bird would have to work out how to keep the lid open while it reaches its beak into the bin to retrieve the treat.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your work! Wonderful and amazing. Brilliant! Of course you realize that you are actually allowing these birds to become more intelligent by growing new neural pathways as they solve these puzzles. The brain loves to learn so of course at least SOME of your visitors are intrigued, attracted and satiated and then lured back again and again by our mental morsels. :°) LOVELY!
It would also be interesting to see if color-co-ordinating problems helps them figure it out faster. For example having all the knobs be a certain colour, pegs be a different colour, etc.
We used to feed cockatoos outside our kitchen window. That all changed when the cockatoos figured out how to open the window from the outside and pried open the seed bin we kept next to the window.