Parrots Choose To Work Together
Author:
First published in Sanctuary Asia,
Vol. 31
No. 5,
May 2011
A team studying the birds at a research centre in Paris found that some birds preferred to work alone, while others liked to work together.
The findings are published in the journal Animal Cognition.
The problem-solving test the researchers designed was a miniaturised version of one that was originally developed to test chimpanzees' ability to work in teams.
It was recently scaled up to test co-operation in elephants.
The apparatus required two parrots to pull on a string at the same time in order to pull a tray towards them and obtain a food reward.
"The birds were able to coordinate," explained Dr Dalila Bovet from Paris West University Nanterre La Défense, who led the study. Read the full report here.
Source: by Victoria Gill, Science and nature reporter, BBC News, U.K.
