Parrots Aren't Props

I’m not going to share the video, because I see no benefit in giving it more traffic on social media.  A screen shot will have to suffice, though if you find yourself highly motivated, I’m sure that you’ll be able to find it without too much difficulty.  I's blurry, but essentially, it’s a clip of a man – wearing two super-thick gloves – running down the sidewalk with his leashed pets flying in front of him.  That’s right, flying – because they are macaws. 

I see posts of this ilk fairly often, and usually I just roll my eyes and move on.  This one stuck in my craw a little bit, however.  That’s because I saw it being shared on a social media page for zookeepers.  And most of the commentators seemed to find it funny or cute.

It wasn’t.  These macaws aren’t so much “flying” as they are “desperately trying not to fall, all while wearing harnesses that aren’t made to bear this kind of pressure.”  They can’t control their speed or their direction, which a dog or other terrestrial animal out for a walk at least has some control over.  They are basically being swung until they flap their wings.  This is not good welfare.

Forget about orcas and dolphins, which relatively few institutions have.  Forget about bears and elephants, which we are constantly doing better by, both in terms of our facilities and our husbandry.  I’ve become increasingly convinced that the biggest welfare disaster that zoos and aquariums have, and which not enough people are seeking to address, are the large parrots, like macaws and cockatoos.  Almost every facility has some, either as exhibit animals or as educational ambassadors.  Unlike dolphins or elephants, they are readily available as pets – expensive, far more so than a cockatiel or a budgerigar, but not unaffordable by any means.  They appear frequently in TV and movies.  I worry about these guys a lot.

Way too often, I see people treating parrots as little feathered buddies, or as a silly toy.  Something that exists solely for comedic or aesthetic purposes, whether it be to liven our lives with silly antics, such as brightening up a garden, or repeating comically inappropriate things at just the right time in a deadpan voice.  I once worked with two keepers who would spend hours each day “enriching” one of their birds – only the enrichment was more for them.  They would dress him up in costumes, pose him for pictures, and put him in ridiculous situations, like push him around in a baby carriage.  I knew these ladies – they were good keepers, and took good care of their other animals.  I wondered, what made them decide that this bird should be managed in this way?

A big part, I suspect, is that many of the macaws and cockatoos in zoos, especially those that serve as ambassadors, are rescued pets.  They are filled with issues and don’t know how to behave like birds… so rather than try to manage them like birds, we treat them little neurotic, feathery little people.  Many of these birds are also unable to fly, either through actual restriction or through atrophy and disuse of their muscles.  If they are surrendered to a zoo, they may be placed out on a perch instead of in an aviary. 

It reminds me of people with little dogs being carried in their purses.  Your dog would be much happier chasing squirrels, rolling around in horse dung, and eating things it shouldn’t eat.  The difference between dogs and macaws, of course, is that the former has been separated from its wild form by thousands of years of selective breeding.  A macaw or a cockatoo has not.

What worries me is that in part we are, even unwillingly, feeding this narrative by taking in these former pets and managing them this way.  We’re providing better husbandry than they probably had as pets, but not treating them as full-parrots.  A pair of hyacinth macaws or palm cockatoos managed as a zoo-based breeding program is given a natural aviary, an appropriate social group, and enrichment that tries to recreate wild behaviors.  Former pets are treated as… well, pets, but dressed up as rescues.

The handler in this video is wearing gloves that are used for working with eagles and other large birds of prey.  They shouldn’t be necessary for working parrot that are comfortable being handled.  If someone were to pull a video like this with a bird of prey, or a duck, or an ibis, or literally any other kind of bird, I know my colleagues would be upset and disappointed.

We should remember that when we see things like this.  Parrots aren’t toys that resemble birds.  They are birds, with all of the needs that go with that.  They should be respected accordingly.