A new study from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna has found that Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana) add flavor to their food by dunking it into soy yogurt.
The researchers discovered that the birds specifically dipped their food into flavored yogurt rather than plain yogurt or water. This behavior suggests that the cockatoos were intentionally enhancing the taste of their food, rather than just softening it or cleaning it.
Dunking food is not unusual in the animal world. Many animals soak dry food to make it softer, rinse off dirt, or even use liquids to transport food. Some birds have been seen dipping food in water before eating it, and certain animals, like otters, use water to clean their meals. However, adding flavor to food by dunking it is rarely seen in non-human animals.
This new discovery began when researchers noticed two cockatoos dipping cooked potato pieces into blueberry-flavored soy yogurt. Curious about whether this was a random act or a deliberate behavior, the scientists decided to investigate further.
Testing the Cockatoos’ Dunking Behavior
To better understand why the cockatoos were dunking their food, the researchers observed 18 birds during their breakfast. The cockatoos were given a bowl of either noodles or potatoes, along with three different liquids: freshwater, blueberry-flavored soy yogurt, and plain soy yogurt.
The scientists watched the birds for 30 minutes in each session, recording how often they dunked their food and which liquid they used.
Out of the 18 cockatoos, nine birds were seen dunking their food. Interestingly, they preferred dunking noodles more than potatoes. On average, each bird dunked noodles 12 times, while potatoes were dunked only six times.
Most importantly, the cockatoos strongly preferred blueberry-flavored yogurt over the plain yogurt. They dipped food into the blueberry yogurt twice as often as they did with the plain yogurt, and they never dunked their food in water.
This shows that the birds were not trying to soften their food or clean it. Instead, they were likely choosing the blueberry yogurt because they liked the taste.
Why Dunking Was About Taste, Not Cleaning
The scientists wanted to rule out other reasons for the cockatoos’ dunking behavior. Perhaps they were simply softening their food, as some birds do when they soak hard food in water.
However, in previous studies, cockatoos had left food in water for much longer—about 22.9 seconds. In this study, they only left food in yogurt for about 3.2 seconds, just long enough to coat it.
Another possibility was that the birds were trying to clean their food. But if this were the case, they would have likely used water instead of yogurt. Since the cockatoos never dunked their food in water, it suggests that cleaning was not the reason for their behavior.
To test whether the birds were choosing yogurt based on color instead of taste, the scientists gave them two different-colored yogurts. The cockatoos did not show a preference based on color, which confirms that their choice was based on flavor.
Further testing showed that the birds preferred eating noodles with blueberry yogurt more than eating the noodles alone or just the yogurt alone. This suggests they were deliberately combining flavors. Interestingly, the birds were happy to eat potatoes without adding any yogurt, which may mean they found potatoes tasty enough on their own.
What This Discovery Means
This is the first scientific proof that a non-primate animal—outside of humans and some monkeys—deliberately adds flavor to its food. Goffin’s cockatoos are already known for their intelligence.
They are problem solvers, can use tools, and can plan steps ahead to complete tasks. This study adds another layer to their abilities, showing that they may have a sense of taste preference similar to humans.
However, the reason behind this behavior is still unclear. It is not yet known how the cockatoos learned to dunk food for flavor or if other birds do the same.
Interestingly, only two birds in this study had participated in a previous experiment where cockatoos soaked dry food to soften it. This suggests that the yogurt-dunking and the earlier soaking behavior may be separate innovations.
Researchers are interested in whether this behavior will spread among other birds. Future studies may help answer how and why these birds started flavoring their food—and whether they enjoy experimenting with different tastes, much like humans do.
The research findings can be found in Current Biology.
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