The effect of early environment on neophobia in orange-winged Amazon parrots (Amazona amazonica)
Early experience is often a significant factor in shaping animals’ later behavior. Early maternal separation is associated with negative behavioral outcomes, such as increased fearfulness in rats, while higher levels of maternal grooming during the neonatal period are associated with decreased fearfulness and increased exploratory behavior. This finding may have implications for the welfare of […]
Taming parent-reared orange-winged Amazon parrots by neonatal handling
Tameness in parrots is often achieved by artificial rearing, in which chicks are typically removed from parents, fed a liquified or semi-liquified diet by oral gavage and maintained in thermally controlled brooders until they are grown. As an alternate means of rearing birds, we tested whether occasional neonatal human handling of parent-reared chicks might produce […]