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Scientists find new evidence to learn that vasa parrots use a tool to extract calcium from seashells, according to scienceworldreport.

It's quite an interesting find. The parrots can extract the calcium by using small pebbles or date pits in order to "grind calcium powder from the shells" or to rip off tiny bits.

"The use of tools by nonhuman animals remains an exceedingly rare phenomenon," said Megan Lambert, one of the researchers, in a news release. "These observations provide new insights into the tool-using capabilities of parrots and give rise to further questions as to why this species uses tools. Tool use could reflect an innate predisposition in the parrots, or it could be the result of individual trial and error learning or some form of social learning. Whether these birds also use tools in the wild remains to be explored, but ultimately these observations highlight the greater vasa parrot as a species of interest for further studies of physical cognition."

Hence, this is a behaviour that has never been observed in this species. This is the first time that a nonhuman has been seen using tools to grind. Moreover, it is also a report of a nonhuman sharing tools.

There are two habits here that interested the scientists. Firstly, they showed a lot of interest in shells from March to mid-April, just before the breeding season, probably because calcium is very important for egg-laying.

Moreover, scientists were surprised that the male, not the female of the species, was interested in the calcium shells.

Another fascinating find was that the males often fed the females before they had intercourse. That is why they seemed to be more interested in extracting the calcium from the shells.

The findings are published in the journal Biology Letters.