Well, we call this “caching behavior”, and it really isn’t something hidden for you to find. It’s something they are hiding to retrieve later. The fact that you find it first is generally a bitter disappointment to them.
When we rehabbed birds of prey, because we fed them abundantly to build up their strength, we often found they had cached food just in case no new food ever showed up again. Their instincts are aimed towards “save for later, just in case.”
A friend of mine who ran a parrot rescue had a heartbreaking case of this. She took in a severely neglected, half-starved macaw. She gave it a piece of apple with the stem attached to see if it knew what to do with “real” food (as opposed to “just seeds”.) She watched it carefully eat every bite of the flesh, then just as carefully save the seeds and stem in its bowl, in case no new food was presented. She had to go into the kitchen to cry, knowing just what that meant, and how badly starved that poor bird was. A well fed bird flings his food about, knowing there will always be more.
Happy ending. After a few months, the macaw began flinging its food around just like the others.
Read other answers by Mercedes R. Lackey on Quora:
- What is the saddest thing you have seen an animal do?
- If your pet were able to talk for a day, what would you ask your pet?
- Why do most people have dogs and cats as their pet? Why don't they consider another animal just like raccoons, squirrels, or maybe bats?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2gBcjCG
No comments:
Post a Comment