Aside from humans, only a few other species seem to willingly help others. On InternationalFriendshipDay, learn more about the first nonmammals that are also altruists: African gray parrots.
Helping others is such an essential part of being human that we've developed elaborate rituals—and biblical edicts—for protecting kin and sheltering strangers. Yet aside from humans, only a few other species, including orangutans and bonobos, seem to willingly help others. Now, scientists say they've found the first nonmammals that are also altruists: African gray parrots.
To find out whether African gray parrots or blue-headed macaws—two exceptionally brainy species—would assist their fellows, animal cognition scientists with the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology's Comparative Cognition research station, tested four and three pairs, respectively. They first taught the captive birds to exchange a token with a researcher for a nut reward .
In both species, the bird lacking the tokens often uttered soft cries to get their partner's attention. But the blue-headed macaws hopped away, ignoring the cries for help. In contrast, the African grays What's more, the grays would give even if their partner wasn't a close friend or relative. If it was, the donor bird would give even more tokens.
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