ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2021
Nature calls: intelligence and natural foraging style predict poor welfare in captive parrots.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Functionally Relevant Feeding Enrichment: An Examination of Nectar Feeding Devices With Two Species of Parrot.Veterinary medicine and science · 2026Article
- PsittaWel: A welfare assessment tool for companion parrots.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2026Article
- Rethinking raptors: caracaras as a model for avian cognition in the wild.Animal cognition · 2025Review
- The neuro-immune crosstalk between periphery and central nervous system during acute immune response to virus-mimicking RNA in parrots.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Article
- An update on captive cetacean welfare.PeerJ · 2025Review
- Disaggregating animal welfare risks in aquaculture.Science advances · 2024Article
- What are the priority welfare issues facing parrots in captivity? A modified Delphi approach to establish expert consensus.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2024Article
- Farming non-typical sentient species: ethical framework requires passing a high bar.Journal of agricultural & environmental ethics · 2024Article
- What we (don't) know about parrot welfare: Finding welfare indicators through a systematic literature review.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2024Review
- The welfare problems of wide-ranging Carnivora reflect naturally itinerant lifestyles.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Contrafreeloading Indicating the Behavioural Need to Forage in Healthy and Feather Damaging Grey Parrots.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Zoo Animal Welfare Assessment: Where Do We Stand?Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Review
- Feeding, mating and animal wellbeing: new insights from phylogenetic comparative methods.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Risk factors for stereotypic behaviour in captive ungulates.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Nature calls: intelligence and natural foraging style predict poor welfare in captive parrots.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Understanding why some species thrive in captivity, while others struggle to adjust, can suggest new ways to improve animal care. Approximately half of all Psittaciformes, a highly threatened order, live in zoos, breeding centres and private homes. Here, some species are prone to behavioural and reproductive problems that raise conservation and ethical concerns. To identify risk factors, we analysed data on hatching rates in breeding centres (115 species, 10 255 pairs) and stereotypic behaviour (SB) in private homes (50 species, 1378 individuals), using phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs). Small captive population sizes predicted low hatch rates, potentially due to genetic bottlenecks, inbreeding and low availability of compatible mates. Species naturally reliant on diets requiring substantial handling were most prone to feather-damaging behaviours (e.g. self-plucking), indicating inadequacies in the composition or presentation of feed (often highly processed). Parrot species with relatively large brains were most prone to oral and whole-body SB: the first empirical evidence that intelligence can confer poor captive welfare. Together, results suggest that more naturalistic diets would improve welfare, and that intelligent psittacines need increased cognitive stimulation. These findings should help improve captive parrot care and inspire further PCM research to understand species differences in responses to captivity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.