Scientists found new evidence of a grinding tool that was used by animals where wild parrots use pebbles to grind vitamin supplements from shells.

Researchers from the University of York and University of St. Andrews reveal these new findings based on 10 captive greater vasa parrots also known as Coracopsis vasa.  After observing them for a period of eight months, researchers finally noticed some odd behavior.

Like Us on Facebook

Not all parrots use a griding tool, instead they use their beaks to break apart seashells inside their cages for their calcium intake where half of them used pebbles as tools or even date pits to scrape these shells into coarse powder, licking them directly from their improvised tool.

According to lead author of the study Megan Lambert from the University of York, another interesting aspect in this new study is that these birds also use tool transfer, where they would approach other birds and steal this tool using their beak and use it on a seashell.

This tool transferring could be rarer than their use of tools since it is still not clear for researchers if these birds are passing skills to others or maybe they are just being selfish where they try to grab available tools from other birds in the group.

Lambert also adds that if they have not observed this tool using phenomenon, it will be challenging to pinpoint how this behavior began. Since there is now evidence of this type pf social system in wild parrots and that they do share tools, this suggests how tool usage can be transmitted socially after observing one bird's innovation.

Apart from this, researchers also want to learn more why birds are motivated to scrape calcium off, with or without the use of tools. It would also seem normal if a parrot wants to consume calcium from other sources as bird bones cannot store calcium like human skeletons do.

It is also a necessary ingredient for healthy eggshells. However, four out of five parrots that used tools to obtain calcium were apparently males. Males are not thought to care about getting much calcium and the reason behind this is baffling.

Scientists believe that male parrots often engage in "regurgitative feelings" where they puke for their chosen females before they mate. This could also mean that they are swallowing these calcium reserves to offer them to their loved one during mating. This also offers an explanation why calcium scraping became more common in the weeks before breeding season based on these new observations.

This new study is published in the journal, Biology Letters.

Tagswild parrots, tools vitamins parrots, parrots tools calcium pebbles, greater vasa parrots, parrots use grinding tools