Wild Cockatoo Cleverly Solves a 3D Printed Puzzle

Angus Deveson of Maker’s Muse in Sydney, Australia decided to conduct an experiment with the wild sulfur-crested cockatoos in his neighborhood. One particular older cockatoo named Popeye was the first to come around. Deveson first tested Popeye with a simple puzzle of treats hiding under an egg carton. Popeye passed with flying colors. Deveson then designed a 3D printed, laser cut puzzle to see if Popeye (and other cockatoos) could figure it out. As it turns out, he could and much faster than a younger cockatoo.

We all know parrots are smart, but can they solve puzzles? I wanted to test the intelligence of my local Sulphur-crested cockatoos so I designed this puzzle using 3D Printing and Laser cutting. The results were really, really interesting!