Thanks for this video. Sorry the Dunning-Kruger brigade adds to any comment section. How beautiful to see other birds feeding him. Didn't know this happened with older birds.❤ Grateful for folks raising conservation awareness. Happy trails, all. ✨
Everybody online is an animal expert. (End sarcasm.) You all obviously love and care for these wonderful creatures with knowledge and wisdom. Everyone who makes “helpful” suggestions can close their beaks!
What a fantastic documentation of tool use! I would also be interested in further study of how Kati keeps his "unicorn" beak shortened. From the NY Times video I assumed that the beak stopped growing completely after being damaged. The amount of self-maintenance required is impressive!
While we haven’t looked deeply into it, it looks like he keeps it ground down mostly through his regular activities in the aviary, such as when he pushes food against the edge of the platforms to feed and by rubbing it against trees / other objects. In the past the times where it has grown out have been when he had to be taken out of the main aviary for health checks. For example, there was a time last year where he had to be out of the aviary for about a month due to an unrelated ear infection, and the unicorn horn grew out quite a bit in that time, but was quickly worn back down once he returned to the aviary.
Oh, hurrah! I never knew that Kati-Bruce came to Willowbank as a juvenile kea. For some reason, I'd inferred that he'd been injured as an adult. That makes his adaptations more... comfortable to understand; he's not working around something he knows he's lost, but rather he's working out things he knows he can do if he can just figure out how. That makes them definite victories. (And makes me think about how I should approach one of my injuries to make a victory of it, rather than a regret-patch. Thank you for teaching me something, Kati-Bruce and Animal Minds.) It's interesting that Kati-Bruce does his own upper-beak maintenance, for the most part. Does he have something he does deliberately for that? It's difficult to imagine what regular use activities would occur to allow him to keep it so short. Given that even human fingernails grow at different rates across the nail, so it's difficult to repair a vertical split, it makes sense that Kati-Bruce would end up with a twisted unicorn horn beak sometimes. He is an amazing bird. 😁 Thank you for sharing and elaborating on his story!
We haven’t recorded any deliberate behaviours for this yet, but it might be something interesting to do some further observations and see if we can see anything.
@@AnimalMindsLab ^_^ It's an overflow of riches when it comes to your lab, the kea, and observations. Here's hoping you will soon be able to continue your work, in spite of lock-downs.
So, on the bad side I think we could do something unique to help Kati Bruce and we refused. And on the other side, I am happy to know that Mr Bruce is okay, doing well and still surviving since 2013. Thank you! But can we at least try even for a day to see if Bruce is better off...
Thanks for this video. Sorry the Dunning-Kruger brigade adds to any comment section.
How beautiful to see other birds feeding him. Didn't know this happened with older birds.❤
Grateful for folks raising conservation awareness. Happy trails, all.
✨
It is always fascinating to observe how quickly and well wild animals learn to deal with a disability.
I would love to study kadi (Bruce) and just see how he acts and uses his surroundings! I think that would be so cool to watch!
Everybody online is an animal expert. (End sarcasm.)
You all obviously love and care for these wonderful creatures with knowledge and wisdom. Everyone who makes “helpful” suggestions can close their beaks!
High five, Betsy.
❤
What a fantastic documentation of tool use! I would also be interested in further study of how Kati keeps his "unicorn" beak shortened. From the NY Times video I assumed that the beak stopped growing completely after being damaged. The amount of self-maintenance required is impressive!
While we haven’t looked deeply into it, it looks like he keeps it ground down mostly through his regular activities in the aviary, such as when he pushes food against the edge of the platforms to feed and by rubbing it against trees / other objects. In the past the times where it has grown out have been when he had to be taken out of the main aviary for health checks. For example, there was a time last year where he had to be out of the aviary for about a month due to an unrelated ear infection, and the unicorn horn grew out quite a bit in that time, but was quickly worn back down once he returned to the aviary.
Great video as always dude! :D
Thank you!
Oh, hurrah! I never knew that Kati-Bruce came to Willowbank as a juvenile kea. For some reason, I'd inferred that he'd been injured as an adult. That makes his adaptations more... comfortable to understand; he's not working around something he knows he's lost, but rather he's working out things he knows he can do if he can just figure out how. That makes them definite victories. (And makes me think about how I should approach one of my injuries to make a victory of it, rather than a regret-patch. Thank you for teaching me something, Kati-Bruce and Animal Minds.)
It's interesting that Kati-Bruce does his own upper-beak maintenance, for the most part. Does he have something he does deliberately for that? It's difficult to imagine what regular use activities would occur to allow him to keep it so short. Given that even human fingernails grow at different rates across the nail, so it's difficult to repair a vertical split, it makes sense that Kati-Bruce would end up with a twisted unicorn horn beak sometimes.
He is an amazing bird. 😁 Thank you for sharing and elaborating on his story!
We haven’t recorded any deliberate behaviours for this yet, but it might be something interesting to do some further observations and see if we can see anything.
@@AnimalMindsLab ^_^ It's an overflow of riches when it comes to your lab, the kea, and observations. Here's hoping you will soon be able to continue your work, in spite of lock-downs.
Kati is a beautiful boy
He really is!
So, on the bad side I think we could do something unique to help Kati Bruce and we refused.
And on the other side, I am happy to know that Mr Bruce is okay, doing well and still surviving since 2013. Thank you! But can we at least try even for a day to see if Bruce is better off...
Like the experts haven't done their best. Dude.
🤦