Behavioral Changes Over A Reproductive Cycle In Captive Orange Winged Amazon Parrots Amazona Amazonica

Author : Shannon Marie Murphy
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781124907888
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (78 download)

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Download or read book Bathing and Preening Behavior in Captive Orange-winged Amazon Parrots (Amazona Amazonica) written by Shannon Marie Murphy and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Feather maintenance is postulated to be a very important behavior in the daily lives of birds. However, while several functions of feather maintenance have been proposed, relatively few studies have experimentally investigated feather maintenance. This thesis reports on feather maintenance, particularly preening and bathing, in two chapters. Chapter I, a review of the literature, describes proposed functions of feather maintenance and the behaviors and structures involved (feathers, uropygial glands, preening and bathing behavior). Chapter II reports research on the preening and bathing behaviors of captive Orange-winged Amazon parrots (Amazona amazonica), and the impact of such behaviors on their time budgets. In Expt. 1, the postures and sequence of postures performed during bathing behavior are described. Parrots (N = 12) were sprayed with water using a hand-held spray wand simulating rainfall; induced bathing behavior was also video recorded and analyzed. Complete bathing bouts were found to contain eight postures between the initial water spray event to drying, post-bath. Expt. 2 describes time allocated to the most time consuming behaviors (resting, feeding and preening) during three, 2-hr observation periods (morning, midday, afternoon). Behaviors of all parrots (N = 12) were recorded via continuous sampling. Results suggest that parrots spend ~90% of their time resting, feeding and preening. A crepuscular pattern of feeding and resting was evident, with more feeding in the morning and afternoon and more resting in the midday; preening followed no such pattern and was stable across the day. In Expt. 3, parrots (N = 12) were sprayed with water and bathing behavior was recorded for a 15-min midday spray period. Behaviors were recorded for 1 hr before and 1 hr after the spray period. Parrots spent ~9 min bathing and had an ~2 min latency-to-bathe period during the 15-min spray episode. Resting and feeding times did not differ significantly before vs. after the spray period, while preening significantly decreased after the spray period. In Expt. 4 parrots (N = 11) were sprayed for 20 min on an initial spray event (ISE) on the same day, then sprayed at 2-, 4- or 6-day refractory intervals (RI) thereafter. By RI 6, bathing time was increased and latency-to-bathe time was decreased compared to the ISE. Lastly, in Expt. 5, parrots (N = 11) were sprayed for 20 min in the morning, midday and afternoon, and behaviors were recorded 1 hr before and 1 hr after each spray period. Parrots bathed for ~11 min in the morning, then bathing decreased across the day, while latency-to-bathe was ~1.5 min across the day. As in Expt. 3, resting and feeding remained unchanged, while preening significantly decreased 1 hr after the spray period in the midday. Sham-bathing (non-sprayed parrots bathing in the presence of sprayed and bathing parrots) showed trends similar to bathing and latency-to-bathe times in Expts. 4 and 5. Results suggest that captive Orange-winged Amazon parrots: 1) perform bathing behavior similar to that reported for their wild counterparts; 2) bathe in the morning for ~10 min; and 3) have a>4 d bathing refractory period. Bathing and preening are important components of feather maintenance, suggesting that regular bathing opportunities should be included in captive parrot husbandry to assure parrot welfare.