Efficacy of foraging enrichments to increase foraging time in Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus erithacus)

Social Isolation Shortens Telomeres in African Grey Parrots (Psittacus erithacus erithacus)

Telomeres, the caps of eukaryotic chromosomes, control chromosome stability and cellular senescence, but aging and exposure to chronic stress are suspected to cause attrition of telomere length. We investigated the effect of social isolation on telomere length in the highly social and intelligent African Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus erithacus). Our study population consisted of single-house...

Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey Parrots (Psittacus erithacus)

How do we measure avian ‘intelligence’ and communicative capacities? Two decades of study on Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) provide more questions than answers. What is intelligence? Can we evaluate nonhumans using human tasks and definitions? Or fairly test nonhuman sensory systems? How do nonmammalian brains process information? Do avian and mammalian cognitive capacities significantly ov...

Measurement of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol in captive grey parrots (Psittacus e erithacus).

Possible Levels of Animal Consciousness with Reference to Grey Parrots (Psittacus erithacus)

Researchers often study nonhuman abilities by assuming their subjects form representations about perceived stimuli and then process such information; why then would consciousness be required, and, if required, at what level? Arguments about nonhuman consciousness range from claims of levels comparable to humans to refutation of any need to study such phenomena. We suggest that (a) species exhib...

African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) use inference by exclusion to find hidden food.

Exclusion allows the detection of hidden food when confronted with the choice between an empty and a potentially baited food location. However, exclusion may be based on avoidance of the empty location without drawing inferences about the presence of the food in the baited location. So far, such inferences have been demonstrated in the great apes only: after seeing an experimenter eating one of...