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Effects of Foraging Enrichment on the Behaviour of Parrots

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2023

L E Coulton ,
N K Waran  and
R J Young
L E Coulton
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecology and Resource Management, University of Edinburgh, King's Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK
N K Waran
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecology and Resource Management, University of Edinburgh, King's Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK
R J Young*
Affiliation:
Animal Department, Edinburgh Zoo, Murrayfield, Edinburgh EH 12 6TS, UK
*
† Contact for correspondence and requests for reprints
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Abstract

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The purpose of this study was to enrich parrot enclosures by creating foraging opportunities appropriate for the species and to investigate the possible preference for a variable versus a constant food supply. The foraging device comprised of a length of wood (2×0.08×0.08m) with 50 holes (0.02m diameter x 0,02m depth) drilled into one face. Food was placed in the holes of the foraging device in one of two distributions: ‘constant’, one food item in every hole (total = 50 food items) or ‘variable’, 5 food items in 10 of the holes (total = 50 food items). The holes were then covered with starch paper. During the enrichment period the parrots spent significantly more time allopreening than in the baseline or post-enrichment periods. The results also provide some evidence of contrafreeloading in parrots, but no preference for a variable over a constant food source. The study shows that providing extra foraging opportunities for parrots is a useful form of enrichment.

Keywords

animal welfarecontrafreeloadingenvironmental enrichmentforagingparrots
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , November 1997 , pp. 357 - 363
Copyright
© 1997 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

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