A study published in the journal Biology Letters suggests that cockatoos display the human-like behavior of self-control after the birds were observed to wait for food of higher quality when presented with the opportunity.
Researchers from the University of Vienna analyzed the behavior of 14 birds and observed that all of the subjects displayed some type of impulse control regarding food consumption--something the scientists say is a rarity in non-human animals.
Crows, ravens, jays and other birds that are part of the corvid family have displayed the behavior of not eating a piece of food because they knew a bigger and better piece was on its way, according to the study's researchers.
Primates have also shown to display this ability, but there are still a small amount of non-human animals that have demonstrated impulse control.
The study was conducted at the Goffin Lab at the University of Vienna, where researchers tested Goffin cockatoos. The birds were permitted to take a piece of food and then were presented with the chance to give the morsel back to the researcher after a certain period of time.
And if the cockatoos did not take the food, they were rewarded with a bigger and higher quality piece of food as compared to the initial offering.
"Subjects were able to bridge delays of up to 80 [seconds] for a preferred food quality and up to 20 [seconds] for a higher quantity, providing the first evidence for temporal discounting in birds that do not cache food," the study's authors said.
The researchers said that they are determined to focus on identifying how socio-ecological factors may affect the evolution of self-control.
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