Other Animals

Griffin preens to distract himself during a trial. Image courtesy of Dr. Irene Pepperberg Simply stated, “executive function” means using the rational bit of your brain rather than the emotional bit to make a decision. Executive function generally involves three main aspects of behavior (Diamond, 2013)—inhibitory control (thinking about the results of one’s actions and

My March 2023 post was about the significant work being done in Costa Rica to save the critically endangered Great Green Macaw. While the largest population currently exists there, nearby Colombia is doing its part to sustain this species through the work of the Horizon Conservation Foundation. Mónica Franco, Co-founder, and Executive Director, describes their

August 14, 2023 By Zachary Mutinda, Save the Elephants Researcher On the edge of Kenya’s vast Tsavo West National Park lies Lake Jipe—one of the country’s most important wetlands and home to hippos, crocodiles, and unique birdlife. But beyond its tranquil setting, this freshwater lake also holds a remarkable secret—a harmonious and unique coexistence between

Glossy Black Cockatoo female by Ray Tipper The glossy black cockatoo is a much-loved parrot that has an IUCN (International Union of the Conservation of Nature) designation of Vulnerable. Glossy black cockatoos are native to Australia and are threatened due to their reliance on trees for nesting. The trees are often cleared for development, and

JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Volunteerism is an important element of advancing conservationist efforts for many creatures, including our beloved parrots. When one donates a portion of life to helping animals live more efficiently and more easily, an immovable sense of contribution is implanted within us that lives long after the

Webinar: The Grey Way — But I Read It on the Internet! Part 2 Date: Friday, August 25, 2023 Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter) Join us for a FREE, live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our

Webinar: The Grey Way — But I Read It on the Internet! Part 1 Date: Friday, August 18, 2023 Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter) Join us for a FREE, live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our

Webinar: Translating Parrot: Cockatoos – Unraveling the Mysteries Date: Friday, August 4, 2023 Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter) Join us for a FREE, live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our special guest, Pamela Clark, is a

July 24, 2023 By Dr. Jim Sanderson, Director of Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation In 2018, I visited Buyandelger Suuri and Otgonbayar Baatargal, who lead Steppe Wildlife, Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation’s (SWCCF) partner in Mongolia. They were working over 415 miles southeast of Ulaanbaatar, the capital city, near the remote village of Sukhbaatar, where Otgonbayar

I’ve long maintained that all creatures within the weave of this world are extraordinary and come under the same emotional umbrella that humans reside under. You cannot go too far on the internet without running into a story about a creature that has displayed a soul by helping or caring for things not directly related

Parrot Awareness Week in the UK was launched in 2023 to promote improving the welfare of pet birds. Over the course of the week, it highlighted a number of important themes with respect to parrot welfare in captivity to help owners provide their parrots with the best care possible. I recently received a message about

With the heavy chain slung over her shoulder, Stephanie Barron climbed up the makeshift ladder along the tree trunk. Steel links clattered as she wrapped them around the bear pole, fastened horizontally 20 ft. above ground and 200 ft. from the campsite, to hang her food. Bears and other predators can smell food from miles

Anxiously waiting for his colleague to return, Getachew Assefa sat in his tent under a blanket of stars above. The Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Program (EWCP) team camped along the steep, grass-covered cliffs of the Simien Mountains, a rugged landscape home to an important and elusive population of Ethiopian wolves. These wolves’ behavior was not fully

Photo by Thomas Willmott on Unsplash Carrier Pigeons have played important roles in the history of the world. When message reception was not a reliable process in the past, the sought-after speed and distance covering of a bird carrying a message to important stops was initiated by training. War events have been won by a

The Save the Elephants (STE) Human-Elephant Coexistence team treaded carefully, avoiding the broken stalks of the farmer’s ruined maize field. He angrily vented while the researchers inspected the plate-sized footprints of the elephant herd that had raided his farm the previous night. Human-elephant conflict is rising across Africa due to such incidents, and in Sagalla,

In the world that we live in, there are day people and night people. Typically, certain personalities and inclinations exhibit better in one or the other of the two settings. The reasonings are widely varied when it pertains to humans. And it may very well be that same kind of partial inclination settings for the

How do we know when a bird species is in trouble? We depend on local communities, scientists, researchers, and international organizations to do this work for us and sound the alarm.  Sometimes it is hard to know how to help or where to go for reliable information. We hear that a species is endangered, threatened,

A herd of African forest elephants moves majestically through a tropical rainforest. With each step, they trample dense vegetation that, left untouched, would absorb and store the sun’s heat and warm the ground below. As they trample the plants, the sun’s rays instead reflect off the newly exposed ground, cooling the planet’s surface. The herd

Image by Mullerelles from Pixabay Last month I wrote a blog on how technology could be used to improve the lives of our companion parrots. I assessed the ability of birds to “ZOOM” with one another as a mostly positive achievement, although I did mention possible negative issues (e.g., overuse of the same behavioral patterns

Webinar: Translating Parrot: Travel – Is it Right for Your Bird? Date: Friday, July 28, 2023 Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter) Join us for a FREE, live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our special guest, Pamela

Webinar: Ask the Vet with Tom Tully, DVM, DABVP (Avian Practice), DECZM (Avian) Date: Friday, July 21, 2023 Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter) Join us for a FREE, live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our special

Webinar: Avian Vet Insider—Enrichment & Building Trust Through “Trick” Training Date: Friday, July 14, 2023 Time: 12:00 pm PDT (double-check your local time with this time zone converter) Join us for a FREE, live, interactive webinar hosted by Laura Doering, former editor of Bird Talk magazine and Birds USA magazine. Our special guest, Dr. Stephanie

New York-based birder Christian Cooper will be the host of National Geographic’s new series, “Extraordinary Birder.” Image by Jon Kroll/National Geographic Where birds are concerned, fans just cannot seem to get enough coverage of the winged wonders that exist in our presence. Whether those are in-house pets of the many varieties of colorful and intelligent

June 6, 2023 By Carey Wentz, MRN Communications Manager If you’ve ever had the chance to see a yellow-naped parrot (Amazona auropalliata) up close, you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that they have captured the attention (and hearts!) of many. A few years ago, I traveled to El Jobo with Sam and Ted to see these

Street artist Nathan “Nyces” Murdoch was commissioned to paint this amazing parrot mural on his home in Peterborough, England.image from https://www.facebook.com/IAMNyces As much as the art of life is ever present in our day-to-day existence, so is the depiction of that life. For ages untold, Man has drawn that which fascinates them on canvas elements

Rising sea levels. Uncontrollable megafires. Warming global temperatures. We all know the headlines. The climate crisis is already being felt and will worsen if humanity’s ways remain unchanged. The means of halting severe global warming are still within our reach, but how can this be done in time? The UN Paris Agreement is designed to

There are several smaller parrot species in Australia that deserve our attention, including the superb parrot, the swift parrot, and the orange-bellied parrot. These birds are brightly colored and beautiful, and are often critically endangered as well. There are also growing concerns about the status of the magical palm cockatoo. Australia’s Difficult Bird Research Group

WCN’s Conservation Partners come from diverse backgrounds and work with many different species across the globe, but something that all of our Partners have in common is their excellent standards of transparency, humility, and inclusive approaches for their hard work and research. It is no surprise that some of our Partners have recently been honored

Pale Mel, a red-tailed hawk, was well-known in NYC’s Central Park.jeremy Seto, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Dwellers in New York City find their outdoorsy beauty in the “wilds” of their famed Central Park. They attend the show often. In fact, they have their favorites, all known by name. Recently, an escaped Eurasian eagle

Poster for a conference at the Media Lab in Spring, 2000; picture of one of our parrots using our primitive controller and screen to access the system. I’m sure many of you saw the news about how scientists have developed a system whereby parrots can interact with one another online. I did a wee bit of