Know More about African Grey Parrots

Several people and other great apes are commonly known for their willingness for helping others in need and even strangers. Now, these researchers who are reporting in Current Biology on January 9 have further also showed for the first time that some birds -- and specifically African grey parrots -- are very similarly helpful for others.

Co-author Désirée Brucks of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Germany have found that African grey parrots are voluntarily and spontaneously helping familiar parrots for achieving a goal, without obvious immediate benefits for them has been clarified in a study.

Parrots and crows are also known for having big brains that are relative to the size of their bodies and also problem-solving skills for matching. For those similar reasons, they all sometimes are considered to be "feathered apes, explained Brucks and study co-author Auguste von Bayern.

However, earlier these studies have showed that, despite their impressive social intelligence, the crows don't have the habbit of helping other crows. In their new type of study, Brucks and von Bayern wondered that what about parrots?

For finding out, they enlisted an array of African grey parrots and blue-headed macaws. Both these parrot species were eager for trading tokens with an experimenter for a nut treat. 

By: Prerana Sharma

Content: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200109130153.htm