Parrots who learn to video call feathered friends feel less lonely, study finds | 24CA News
As It Happens6:18Domesticated parrots who video name ‘buddies’ really feel much less lonely: research
Polly need a cracker? Maybe after a FaceTime catchup with an outdated good friend.
According to a latest research at Northeastern University in Boston, parrots which have been taught to contact their feathered friends with a video name app confirmed indicators of feeling much less remoted or lonely.
Parrots are a extremely social species, stated Northeastern University assistant professor and co-researcher Rébecca Kleinberger.
Many parrot species reside in massive flocks — after they reside with people, they’re often remoted from different birds. That can result in heightened loneliness and tedium.
“When they’re kept as pets, very often they’re the only bird in the household,” she stated. “They do not have the opportunity to develop their own species identity.”
The parrots have been taught the affiliation between ringing a bell and their proprietor bringing an iPad with a number of birds. Then, the parrot may select which one they’d wish to name by way of video.
It was essential to permit the parrots to decide on which of their “friends” to name, in keeping with Kleinberger.
Rebecca Meagher, assistant professor at Dalhousie University’s Department of Animal Science & Aquaculture, stated comparable experiments may benefit different social animals.
She stated comparable work has been carried out earlier than, involving displaying movies of different animals to primates.
“Finding new ways to allow social contact when animals can’t actually be housed with other members of the species certainly has the potential to benefit the welfare of social species,” stated Meagher, who was not concerned within the research.
“This type of technological approach has potential applications to many animals kept as companions or in zoos and on farms if they have to be housed alone.”
‘Different behaviours’
The research took about three months. But it additionally included a three-week meet-and-greet session, the place they have been familiarized with different hen buddies concerned within the research.
Some caught on shortly, however it took longer for others to get launched.
“It took a little while,” she stated. “For others it took longer to understand that they really had this choice.”
This analysis is comparatively new: the researchers imagine this could be the primary research of animal-to-animal video calling.
Parrots show neophobic tendencies, Kleinberger stated, which implies they’re reluctant to attempt new issues.
But she talked about that whereas a variety of behaviours was exhibited throughout the research, many of the birds principally reacted positively.
“We were worried there might be some stress involved,” she stated. “So we had a lot of safety protocols in place in case they got scared or aggressive.”
“Either they would start to show off, or they would start to mimic each other or imitate each other through the call,” she stated, mentioning that among the birds even known as one another by their names.
“Others were quite calm and they would come close to the screen, fall asleep next to the screen — so a lot of different behaviours.”
Ethical implications
Georgia Mason, director of the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare on the University of Guelph, has carried out work previously that concerned parrot welfare.
She stated oftentimes, people attempt to enrich the lives of captive animals with “proxies of what they would have in nature.”
“It might make you think, ‘well why don’t we give them the real thing?'” she stated.
Although some moral issues have been raised — together with whether or not the video calls would possibly stress out the birds as a substitute — the crew did not wish to recommend that “you can just put a screen in front of their bird and everything is gonna go well,” Kleinberger stated.
Kleinberger stated that the experiment was by no means meant to exchange pure parrot socialization.
The crew made positive that there wasn’t a danger for the parrots to turn into bonded by the display. They restricted the quantity of calls to ensure their homeowners may restrict interactions if wanted.
“Given the fact that there are so many parrots that are already living in those situations, we wanted to see how we could leverage technology to improve their quality of life,” Kleinberger stated.
