Emily Chan
Parrots living in captivity often suffer from a lack of stimulation and entertainment, but video calls with other parrots can help ease the boredom and loneliness.
Recently, a study has found that when pet parrots are given the option to participate in live video calls with their friends or watch pre-recorded videos, they will choose the live chats over pre-recorded content.
This suggests that parrots may be able to tell the difference between the two and that they have a preference for interacting with other birds on live calls.
The study was led by researchers from the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom and Northeastern University in the United States.
They gave tablet devices to nine parrots and their owners for the experiment. In the first meeting, the birds were introduced to each other online.
Over the course of six months, there were 12 sessions that added up to a total of 36 hours. Six of them were live chats, and the other six were pre-recorded videos.
The researchers observed that the parrots spent more time on the digital devices when a live call was going on and seemed more engaged.
Overall, they spent 561 minutes on live calls and 142 minutes on the pre-recorded videos. They also chose to initiate live calls to other birds more frequently.
According to 55 percent of the bird owners, their parrots enjoyed all the calls, while 77 percent thought that they responded more to the live calls.
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