Providing stimulation for your pet can be one of the most engaging things you can do as an animal owner, whether it be exercise, puzzle games, or toys to entertain your
After an initial meet-and-greet where the birds were introduced to each other online, the
During a six-month period the researchers tracked the engagements of the birds on a call with another bird live or watching the pre-filmed content. The team found that the birds seemed to enjoy live calls to another bird more, were more engaged in the live chats, and spent longer using the digital devices when a live call was happening. In total the birds spent 561 minutes on live calls and only 142 minutes on the playback videos. They also triggered live calls more often.
“Some caregivers believed that their parrots were capable of differentiating between the sessions. One told us that their bird enjoyed vocalising with another live bird but quickly lost interest when there was no response to their calls during pre-recorded videos,” said Dr Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, from the University of Glasgow’s School of Computing Science and the paper’s lead author, in a
Around half of the owners of the birds (55 percent) suggested that the
Dr Hirskyj-Douglas said: “This was a small study, and we can’t draw any definite conclusions at this stage about whether the parrots were in some way aware of the differences between live and pre-recorded interactions. However, the results are compelling, and suggest that further study is definitely warranted.”
The study will be presented at the