title: Navigating a tool end in a specific direction: stick-tool use in kea (Nestor notabilis).
abstract: This study depicts how captive kea, New Zealand parrots, which are not known to use tools in the wild, employ a stick-tool to retrieve a food reward after receiving demonstration trials. Four out of six animals succeeded in doing so despite physical (beak curvature) and ecological (no stick-like materials used during nest construction) constraints when handling elongated objects. We further demonstrate that the same animals can thereafter direct the functional end of a stick-tool into a desired direction, aiming at a positive option while avoiding a negative one.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. alice_bayern@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Alice M I
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Auersperg
authors.forename: Ludwig
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huber
authors.forename: Gyula K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Gajdon
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005502:Food; D008297:Male; D010311:Parrots / Q000502:physiology*; D011340:Problem Solving; D012201:Reward; D053001:Tool Use Behavior