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    Polly Share A Cracker? Parrots Can Practice Acts Of Kindness, Study Finds

    Researchers found that African grey parrots voluntarily helped a partner get a food reward by giving the other bird a valuable metal token that could be exchanged for a walnut.
    by Nell Greenfieldboyce Jan 09, 2020 2 minutes
    Recent research has explored "helping" behavior in species ranging from nonhuman primates to rats and bats. To see whether intelligent birds might help out a feathered pal, scientists did an experiment using African grey parrots like these.

    Parrots can perform impressive feats of intelligence, and a new study suggests that some of these "feathered apes" may also practice acts of kindness.

    African grey parrots voluntarily helped a partner get a food reward by giving the other bird a valuable metal token that could be exchanged for a walnut, according to a newly published report in the journal Current Biology.

    "This was really surprising that they, a biologist at ETH Zürich in Switzerland who is interested in the evolution of altruism.

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