Development of an observational quantitative temperament test in three common parrot species

Although temperament has been studied in a wide range of animal species such as primates, dog or a rodents, it has not yet been well documented in birds and in particular in psittacids. Since parrots possess developed communicative and cognitive skills, the study of personality traits is of particular interest. The aim of our study was to develop a reliable and valid temperament test by measuring quantitative behavioural parameters in two genera of medium-sized parrots: the African Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus, n = 15) and the Amazon parrot (Amazona spp., n = 16). We selected a set of 26 behavioural parameters based on a high intra-observer reliability. A principal component analysis was used to establish two reliable and valid temperament traits: anxiety/vigilance and curiosity/neophilia. Our test meets 5 out of 6 reliability and validity criteria which could be assessed. The two identified traits might be related to those found in other animal species, i.e. neuroticism and extraversion. These traits allowed us to demonstrate differences in the temperament of two species from two different genera: Blue-Fronted Amazon Parrots were significantly more anxious/vigilant and more curious/neophilic than African Grey Parrots. We found that parrots were more curious/neophilic when the test was repeated after six weeks, suggesting that a brief exposure to the experimental conditions resulted in a process of habituation. However, a further test eighteen months after the initial test revealed a high consistency in the two temperament traits. To our knowledge, this is the first report of an objective observational temperament test applied on two parrot species in order to compare their temperament. We believe that comparison of different avian species' temperament using similar testing procedures opens an interesting avenue of research which could be used to link temperament, phylogenetic and ecological data.