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What’s the bait? Interesting that either the Kea or their predators are omnivorous enough that would happen.

Apparently Eggs. Also the research shows that they enjoy the noise of setting off the trap. They also throw things off cliffs just to hear them hit the bottom.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/09/extraordi...

A lot of parrots seem to do this. A very simple game of action > weird reaction (fun sound).

Parrots use their loose feathers as sticks, ripping them off and cleaning out the inside of their beaks.

Parrots are fucking smart, man. You have to be smart to do weird useless shit to amuse yourself.

Man, have I got a video for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uXiAe7Oc-I (It's a crow sledding)

Oh god. Crows and octopodes are my shortlist of who will succeed humanity as the sapient Terran species. Crows probably first; octopodes are smarter, but crows have culture and that’s more important than intelligence because it provides another axis of Darwinian evolution.

Sounds like cat behaviour to instinctively sweep all the items of a table / shelf and watch with interest as they fall.

My theory is that it seems too hardwired to be a "fun game" and instead a selected trait because "things knocked off a great height become more edible" e.g. eggs etc.

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