The Bird Way by Jennifer Ackerman

Author:Jennifer Ackerman [Ackerman, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-05-05T00:00:00+00:00

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Halfway around the globe, at the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve in Christchurch, New Zealand, Alex Taylor and Ximena Nelson are working to understand whether the warble call is truly analogous to human laughter and whether there might be deeper positive emotions underlying the call.

Willowbank is a wildlife reserve that focuses on maintaining populations of endangered native species for educational purposes and for breed-and-release programs. The thirteen kea there have become subjects in a series of studies designed by Taylor and Nelson to explore the play warble. Does it function like human laughter? Does it have similar effects on the way a kea feels and on its well-being? Does it defuse conflict and reduce stress?

Nelson is a native Kiwi who has been investigating kea since 2010. Taylor is a relative newcomer to the species. He has worked for years with the New Caledonian crow, considered by many to be the most intelligent bird in the world. The crows are supersmart and champion tool users, says Taylor, but they have a very low tolerance for novelty, and they don’t play at all. “You couldn’t get two birds more different when it comes to playfulness. Kea are absolutely at the other end of the spectrum.” But Taylor views the warble call and play behavior of the kea in the same way he views tool use in the New Caledonian crow, as a means to explore a bird’s mind.

Taylor’s first impression of the kea was pretty much the same as everyone’s, he says. “Suddenly you have this very intense interaction with an animal that’s trying to climb on your shoulder or steal your shoelaces or nibble your ear or pull a strap off your bag or get your camera or pencil. I can’t think of another animal that has this huge love of novel things and interacting with them. Maybe a monkey or great ape? But certainly, no other bird.”

Willowbank is a magical place, says Taylor. “I send students down there to see how good they are with the birds. Within five minutes, they’re dealing with not just one kea, but five, six, seven, eight birds, wanting to interact with them. What better job interview for a young student?” The favorite research subject there is a kea named Kati, who is missing her top beak. Schwing and Wein rescued her from the mountains after she had gotten her beak caught in a trap and lost the upper mandible. “She would have had no chance in the wild,” says Schwing, “so we called in to Willowbank and said, ‘We have this perfectly healthy little kea, should we catch her?’ They said, ‘Absolutely, Raoul, go ahead and catch her.’” Later it was discovered that Kati was a male and renamed Bruce, but everyone still calls her Kati. Now she’s the star at Willowbank, a perfect ambassador for kea, and an eager participant in scientific studies. “She’s an amazing kea to work with,” says Taylor. “She’s really interested in working on the experiments, really bold.”

Taylor sees Kati’s quirky, charismatic species as a fascinating evolutionary riddle.

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