2021/07/22 by Barbara C. Klump, John M. Martin, Sonja Wild +3 · 1 citation
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · Psychology · #Animal Behavior and Reproduction #Biology #Ecology #Economic geography #Foraging #Geography #Primate Behavior and Ecology #Wildlife Ecology and Conservation #Zoology
paper · doi:10.1126/science.abe7808
openalex publication_date 2021/07/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The emergence, spread, and establishment of innovations within cultures can promote adaptive responses to anthropogenic change. We describe a putative case of the development of a cultural adaptation to urban environments: opening of household waste bins by wild sulphur-crested cockatoos. A spatial network analysis of community science reports revealed the geographic spread of bin opening from three suburbs to 44 in Sydney, Australia, by means of social learning. Analysis of 160 direct observations revealed individual styles and site-specific differences. We describe a full pathway from the spread of innovation to emergence of geographic variation, evidencing foraging cultures in parrots and indicating the existence of cultural complexity in parrots. Bin opening is directly linked to human-provided opportunities, highlighting the potential for culture to facilitate behavioral responses to anthropogenic change.