From the article: "[The parents] soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young."
In other words, the albatross fly over the water, and when they see small, colored things floating near the surface, they assume they're small fish or other edible things. Up until quite recently (on the scale of albatross evolution), this was a pretty safe assumption.
So, no, low intelligence and/or desperation aren't implicated; rather, it's a matter of habitat and how prey are identified.
That sounds like a decent explanation, but won't they sense that something is wrong when they touch these objects? I mean stuff like plastic caps are stiff and hard, while fish are not. May be the fact that they evolved to swallow their food instead of chewing it may make it harder for them to distinguish a fish from a plastic cap even when it's in their beak?
In other words, the albatross fly over the water, and when they see small, colored things floating near the surface, they assume they're small fish or other edible things. Up until quite recently (on the scale of albatross evolution), this was a pretty safe assumption.
So, no, low intelligence and/or desperation aren't implicated; rather, it's a matter of habitat and how prey are identified.