The ability to learn by watching others interact had previously only been documented in humans, making macaws just the second species to demonstrate this ability.
The ability to learn by watching others interact had previously only been documented in humans, making macaws just the second species to demonstrate this ability . A captive trio of Blue-Throated Macaw s, also known as Caninde Macaws or Wagler's Macaws .
This species is endemic to a small area of north-central Bolivia, known as Los Llanos de Moxos. These macaws are Critically Endangered, with an estimated 208–303 adult individuals alive in the wild. A recently published study reports that parrots can learn new tricks simply by observing their peers performing the desired behavior in response to a physical cue from a human. The study, by an international group of scientists, discovered that this method of learning – known as third-party imitation – is not exclusive to humans as was widely thought, and could help explain the subtleties of parrot culture and social interactions. Third-party imitation is a social learning trait associated exclusively with humans. It is commonly employed when a person is trying to understand how to fit in with an already established group. Third-party imitation involves observing interactions between two individuals then faithfully copying those interactions. But third-party imitation has never been documented in any animals outside of humans. For example, even though companion dogs are thought to be keen observers of human behaviors, it is interesting to note that they are unable to learn “tricks” merely through passive observation, without prior training . Surprisingly , this observation is also true for at least one parrot species: keas, a highly intelligent and curious parrot that is famous for causing mayhem and chaos , also did not show any evidence of third-party imitation . This species is Critically Endangered, with just 208–303 adult individuals estimated in 2023 to be alive in the wild Macaws that are common pets in the United States and in many countries throughout Europe?can provide us with similar findings, but there are subtle differences in their habits and niche selection that may give different results.are more opportunistic feeders in the wild, living on a wide range of fruits, seeds and nuts,” Ms Haldar replied in email. “My hypothesis is that they are more dependent on social learning, for instrumental skills like how to process a nut, or a new fruit, which does not require IMITATION, but simpler social learning mechanisms like enhancements, or emulation, and hence may not show imitation of intransitive actions.” A male Blue-and-Gold Macaw and a female Blue-throated Macaw . Captive birds in Canada. There is no sexual dimorphism in these species. Despite their deceptively similar physical appearances to the typically somewhat physically larger Blue-and-Yellow Macaws, the study parrots not only occupy a different habitat and geographic region in the wild but they also show specific behavioral differences that are essential for surviving in their habitat in the wild. “Blue-throated macaws are more specialists,” Ms Haldar explained in email, “and not as explorative as other macaw species, living mainly on Motacu palms in the wild, which the young ones probably learn from their parents when they start foraging. But for them, intransitive actions, like gestures, may be more salient features that require imitative learning and can be crucial to form social bonds and maintain cohesive groups.” “But this hypothesis is beyond the scope of our current study and needs to be tested further in future through comparative investigation,” Ms Haldar added. To test their current hypothesis regarding the ability of macaws to learn new behaviors after observing their peers performing these behaviors, Ms Haldar and collaborators monitored 14 captive Blue-Throated Macaws living at, a public aviary in Tenerife that uses a community-focused approach to conserve the world’s most endangered parrot species. Their study enlisted the help of 12 naive experimental macaws and two demonstrator macaws, a trained pair of eight-year-old males. Ms Haldar and collaborators tested whether the naive macaws could imitate a set of five actions after observing one of the trained macaws responding to hand gestures from a researcher . These behaviors included; lifting one leg, spinning around on a perch, and flapping their wings on command . F I G U R E 1 | Illustration of the experimental procedure. A. The human gestural commands associated with the target actions. B. The left panel shows the first round of testing, with the demonstrator and the test subject in the test group and the control subject tested alone in the control group . The demonstrator performs an action thrice in response to the gestural command of the experimenter, 3–5 s following which the second experimenter gives the same gestural command to the test subject in a test trial. The control subject is only given the gestural command without any demonstration. In round 2, shown on the right panel, the testing contingency remains the same except for the addition of a social facilitator bird in the adjacent room of the control subject, who sits on the perch passively without performing any action.A test group of six macaws observed these interactions and were then given the same hand commands, while a control group of five macaws received the commands without prior observation. The test group, which included macaws with names such as Iron Man, Thor, and Sherlock, not only learned more actions than did the control group, but they did so more quickly, responding to prompts like ‘lift one leg’ with twice the accuracy of their peers . Some birds in the experimental group also spontaneously imitated actions before receiving any commands or rewards. F I G U R E 3 | Mean correct response rate for each target action in the two experimental groups. The box plots show the mean response rate for each action for the test group and the control group . Error bars, mean ± SEM.You may have noticed the small size of both the captive population of study macaws and the number of actions they were asked to demonstrate may limit the broader application of these findings without larger studies.Perhaps most surprising aspect of this research was the eagerness of the macaws to imitate the actions of other species living nearby. For example, the Max Planck Research station in Tenerife houses three species of macaws and African grey parrots that live in groups with conspecifics nearby in attached enclosures. “We found that the Great Green Macaws developed a tendency to drop their water bowls – probably because it catches attention of the researchers, who run to them to refill them,” Ms Haldar described in email. “This behaviour gradually spread from one side of the enclosure to the next Great Greens and then to the Blue-Throated Macaws, who also started dropping the bowls, apparently with no direct benefits. This first gave us the impression that these birds have a tendency to learn socially – even across species – which we now see evidenced in our study.” A pair of Great Green Macaws , Zoo Schmiding. This species is Critically Endangered. , which leads to frequent changes in group composition. Third-party imitative learning from an immigrating parrot’s flockmates may facilitate overall group integration and social bonding and may even give rise to cultural conventions of coordinated movements or gestures. Such behavioral coordination may facilitate faster transmission of social information and group synchronisation that could provide adaptive benefits to highly social species.“Conservation strategies often focus on protecting species or genetic pools, with less emphasis on preserving the social structures that underpin transmission of social information that is crucial for survival,” Ms Haldar replied in email. “Our findings on possibility of cultures in this species, imply that conservation policies should be restructured around maintaining functional social systems as a whole, such that with a species, we can also conserve its culture .” Maintaining parrot culture could improve conservation success, particularly when loss of that culture could further endanger these rare parrots .
Grrlscientist Blue-Throated Macaw Ara Glaucogularis Behavioral Imitation Loro Parque Fundación Third-Party Imitation Animal Culture Ecology Evolution
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