Page 53 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #12
P. 53
WILDNEWS By BARANIUK
STUART BLACKMAN,
JAMES FAIR, NIKI RUST,
KRISTEN GILL, KENNY
TAYLOR, SIMON BIRCH,
CHRIS
KEEPING YOU UP TO DATE WITH HE BIG NATURE STORIES
T
Bare-faced blushing:
macaws could be
communicating
emotions via the
colour in their cheeks
(below) and feather
displays (pictured).
BIRDS
Goingredintheface,parrot-fashion
Macaws join a very short list of animals that communicate by blushing.
ell, this is embarrassing. Humans interact positively with human handlers, amongst themselves or in the wild. But
Whave long been thought to be the with whom they have made strong there is little reason at this stage to think
only animals that blush but, it turns bonds. The colour change was often that it signals embarrassment, a complex
out, we are not alone. New research accompanied by a ruffling of the emotion that requires knowledge of what
suggests that certain parrots can also feathers on the crown and nape. others are thinking about you.
communicate emotional states with “We think the display signals a kind “We know that parrots have highly
a rush of blood to the face. of state of satisfaction or pleasure, when sophisticated cognitive skills, comparable
Darwin considered blushing to be they receive attention from their carer,” to primates or dolphins, but their
‘the most peculiar and most human says Aline Bertin of the University of emotional world remains unexplored,”
of all expressions’. But French biologists Tours. She adds that her team also has says Bertin. “But our skin turns more or
have discovered that it’s something we evidence that other macaw less pink in several emotional contexts,”
share with macaws. species produce similar she says. “We also observed blushing
Part of the reason for the rarity of displays. The precise when the macaws were scared
meaning of this is
by the sudden opening of an
blushing animals is that the skin is
Arielle Beraud, University of Tours But macaws and humans are both least because journal.pone.0201762
usually obscured by fur or feathers.
not yet clear, not
umbrella.” Stuart Blackman
FIND OUT MORE
next to nothing
unusual in having bare cheeks.
Working with captive blue-and-yellow
is known about
PLOS ONE: http://journals.plos.
macaws, the biologists found the parrots’
how the parrots
org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/
white cheek skin blushes pink when they
use the display
December 2018 BBC Wildlife 53
