On Major and Champ…

This is a good opportunity to talk about animals and their behavior. When we got our cockatiel, Tuky, research into animal cognition was in diapers. We followed the emerging research and adapted our relationship with first one parrot, and then two, accordingly. When I married and left for Hawaii with my husband, we left them with my sister. We got a baby sun conure in Hawaii, who was raised with respect to her obvious intelligence.

We missed the other two birds, and once we came home, we introduced the young conure to her two brothers, who were very happy to be home. Birds have long memories and do not live in the moment. They were ok with the little invader, who had been a single parrot for three-plus years. She was not sure what to do about this arrangement, but in time she learned the cockatiel was the alpha of this flock, and the Nanday enforced it.

When Tuky died, Cookie grieved for his little brother. We saw it, and the behavior was fascinating. Grieving with corvids is well known. I am sure that is what we saw with a parrot. We never saw that behavior before, or after. Cookie went on with his life, but it took him at least three months to stop being utterly withdrawn and quiet. If you ever have interacted with a Nanday, you know how rare that is. After that, the two conures became a tad more friendly towards each other. When Cookie died, the younger bird seemed to not care…