18/11/2021
Maravillozoo
New study in JZAR looked into the effect of food presentation (𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞 and 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 fruit) on the behaviour of two pairs of zoo-housed blue-and-gold macaws:
🍎Keepers spent significantly 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 preparing diets with chopped fruit;
🍎Activity budgets 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 in both food presentation regimes 𝐁𝐔𝐓⤵️
🍎𝐏𝐨𝐝𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 (i.e. foot use) and 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 significantly 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 when whole fruit was presented;
🍎Resting/inactivity 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 with whole fruit presentation;
🍎Providing macaws with whole foods may be time-effective for animal care staff while encouraging wild-type feeding behaviours & reducing inactivity in the parrots.
---
Read paper (open access): https://jzar.org/jzar/article/view/507
---
