The Kea Parrot, native to New Zealand is well known for its cheeky attitude and bold personality. It is also commonly observed in the wild to be very playful. Scientists and locals have observed both the juveniles and the adults exhibiting playful behavior. Another big thing about these cheeky birds is their distinctive calls, one of which is the origin of their name, sounding like “kee-ah.” A group of researchers in New Zealand listened to 2,884 recordings of various Kea Parrots’ calls to try and discover the variety and reason behind the calls.
What the researchers found was that there were seven distinct types of calls. Most interactions between Kea Parrots starts with a screech, which is replied to with a screech from the other parrot, and then what follows is either a “mew” a “trill” a “chatter” a “whistle” or a combination “screech trill.” The majority of these calls are to give the listener information as to the age sex and location of the bird calling. The exception to this general “speaking pattern” is the warbel. The purpose of the warbel is to establish playful behavior between two birds. The warbel sounds a lot like a human laugh, which is interesting to watch because it makes their interactions very easy to anthropomorphize. These play interactions start with one bird giving off the warbel, and a warbel response from the other bird, followed by them playing around for a bit.
This research is significant because it is very interesting to see the most important kinds of interactions for these birds. Namely, that they do not appear to have alert calls at all, only prioritizing mating calls and play calls. Socializing is very important to the Kea Parrots as they mostly live in temporary social groups. This play behavior is an important part of the Kea Parrots’ lives and seeing the distinction between these types of communication is invaluable.
Source:
Schwing, R., Parsons, S., & Nelson, X. J. (2012). Vocal repertoire of the New Zealand kea parrot Nestor notabilis. Current Zoology, 58(5), 727-740.
Photo source:
NZ, B. S. (2015, July 18). Kea Alpine parrot. Retrieved November 06, 2017, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/volvob12b/19168924003
Sarah Dickinson
November 7, 2017 — 7:01 pm
I had never thought of other animals as being able to laugh or as having vocal sounds specifically for establishing a playful tone, that’s so neat!
Anner Harris
November 8, 2017 — 5:51 am
This very interesting. I wonder if there is any literature, which there probably is, out there that delves into why animals play in general.