Environmental enrichment and behavioral development of orange-winged Amazon parrots (Amazona amazonica): Applications to animal welfare

This objective of the studies reported in this dissertation was to examine some of the welfare problems facing captive parrots in order to gain an understanding of their causes and potential solutions. The experiments were designed from a developmental perspective, and focused on elucidating the relationship between the captive environment and parrot welfare and how it changes over time. The Orange-winged Amazon parrot (Amazona amazonica), a neo-tropical parrot from the Amazon genus, was the model species. Parrots were reared in either barren or enriched cages and observed regularly over the course of 48 weeks. The enrichments were designed to facilitate foraging behaviors, such as chewing through barriers and sorting inedible material to obtain food, and locomotor behaviors, such as climbing, swinging and manipulating objects, and were presented weekly in novel combinations. Parrots in the enriched group developed significantly less stereotypy, performed significantly less feather picking and were significantly less fearful of both novel objects and novel humans. After one year, the parrots from the barren condition received enrichments for four months, during which time their performance of stereotypy and feather picking decreased significantly. In a separate study, parrots were housed either singly or in same-sex pairs, in combination with the enrichments described previously. Pair housing resulted in a more active and diverse behavioral repertoire, eliminated the development of stereotypy and reduced fear responses to novel objects without imparting significant risk of illness and injury or jeopardizing the ability of parrots to relate positively with humans. Taken together these studies show that foraging opportunity, physical complexity and social interaction are crucial to optimal behavioral development in parrots, and that when these elements are absent or severely limited in captivity, behavioral expression can become abnormal in character. In addition, these studies demonstrate that behaviorally based enrichments can provide captive parrots with an environment that supports the development of a healthy and diverse behavioral repertoire.