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Contrafreeloading In Kea (Nestor Notabilis) In Comparison To Grey Parrots (Psittacus Erithacus), Gabriella E. Smith, Amalia P. M. Bastos, Martin Chodorow, Alex H. Taylor, Irene M. Pepperberg

Publications and Research

Contrafreeloading—working to access food that could be freely obtained—is rarely exhibited and poorly understood. Based on data from Grey parrots ( Psittacus erithacus ), researchers proposed a correlation between contrafreeloading and play: that contrafreeloading is more likely when subjects view the task as play. We tested that hypothesis by subjecting a relatively more playful parrot species, the kea ( Nestor notabilis ), to the same experimental tasks. Experiment 1 presented eight kea with container pairs holding more- or less-preferred free or enclosed food items, and examined three types of contrafreeloading: calculated (working to access preferred food over less-preferred, freely available …