Watch Bruce the parrot defeat his rivals with only half a beak

Kea parrots are known for being extremely curious and capable of solving complex problems; they can even make each other chuckle. Now, for the first time, a kea named Bruce has demonstrated skilled combat techniques after losing his upper beak. 

Despite missing a facial feature thought to be crucial for survival, Bruce has worked his way to becoming the alpha male of his circus, the collective noun for a group of kea, at the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve in Christchurch, New Zealand. These olive-green parrots have fiery orange feathers under their wings and live in the mountains of New Zealand’s South Island.

To determine how Bruce achieved such a high social standing even with a physical impediment, a team of researchers recently analyzed how Bruce interacted with other males in his group. Their findings, published in the journal Current Biology, reveal that Bruce uses a novel jousting-like attack with his feet and lower beak to vanquish rivals.

“I think it’s very clear that Bruce has made the most of his half-beak,” says Amalia Bastos, a comparative psychologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland who was not involved in the study. “He might never have survived in the wild, but in captivity he has managed to innovate new behaviors to displace other birds.”

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A precocious parrot 

An endangered species, the crow-size kea are found only in New Zealand. Their cleverness sometimes manifests itself in “cheeky behaviors” like stealing shiny objects and gnawing on windshield wipers, says biologist Alex Grabham, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Canterbury and the lead author of the paper. 

The kea’s sharp, curved beak ordinarily serves as their essential built-in Swiss army knife. The parrots use their beaks to pry things open, preen their feathers and pick off parasites. “Losing it would likely make survival in the wild very difficult,” says Alice Auersperg, a cognitive biologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna who studies intelligence in parrots but was not involved in the research.

 Bruce lost his upper beak when he was a juvenile, possibly after a run-in with a rat trap. The injured parrot was rescued by the New Zealand Department of Conservation and brought to Willowbank’s aviary. Over more than a decade in captivity, Bruce has shown a knack for coming up with new behaviors to compensate for his missing beak. For example, Bastos and her colleagues observed Bruce sticking pebbles between his tongue and lower beak to preen his feathers.

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Champion of the circus

Some scientists and keepers wondered if Bruce’s ingenuity may also benefit his social standing. Grabham and his colleagues recently analyzed years-worth of observational data on Bruce’s interactions with the eight other male kea living at Willowbank.

Over the span of 12 years, Bruce duked it out with the other males on 36 occasions. Despite being the only parrot in the circus lacking an upper beak, Bruce came out victorious every time. The scientists recorded videos of these interactions, allowing them to closely analyze Bruce’s attack.

Whereas most kea tried to bite their opponents’ necks with their large beaks, Bruce exhibited a novel long-range attack. He ran and jumped at the other parrot with his clawed feet sticking out. The movement reminded Grabham of a jousting knight riding a horse. The other kea at Willowbank struggled to stop their jousting counterpart. The scientists discovered that Bruce’s jousting move knocked his opponents off balance during nearly 75 percent of his battles. 

Once Bruce had a parrot on its heels, his dagger-like lower beak finished the job. Like a boxer peppering an opponent with jabs, Bruce used the remaining part of his beak to strike opponents in the back, head, wings and feet. 

To add context to Bruce’s success on the battlefield, the team also investigated the various parrots’ hormones. The scientists collected poop from each kea and pinpointed traces of glucocorticoid metabolites, a hormone commonly linked to readiness or stress. Of all the kea studied, Bruce had the lowest levels of the hormone.

The finding surprised Bastos. “You would have expected the dominant individual to experience the most stress trying to maintain their position,” she said.

Perks of innovation 

Scientists say Bruce’s dominance allowed him to live a stress-free existence as Willowbank’s alpha kea. He was the only parrot in his circus to receive preening from other male parrots, who picked at debris surrounding Bruce’s lower beak and head. Additionally, Bruce was often the first to arrive at the feeding stations, was never challenged while eating and sometimes took sole custody of a feeding station for 15 minutes at a time. 

Bruce is not the only known case of a seemingly disabled animal achieving social success. Some examples include Faben, a chimpanzee who lost the use of his arm due to polio—which was documented by the late primatologist Jane Goodall—and an elderly Japanese macaque that could no longer walk. However, these primates were aided by alliances with siblings and mates. Bruce, on the other hand, was able to achieve success on his own.

Auersperg thinks it is possible that other species of parrots could also be capable of overcoming the challenges presented by a missing beak. “Bruce is an extreme case, but the broader pattern may translate,” she says, mentioning anecdotal reports of captive parrots with similar injuries using their lower beak like a shovel to scoop up food. 

It is unclear if Bruce’s jousting technique would work in the wild, however. In captivity, Bruce interacts with only a small number of parrots. “In the wild, Bruce has a better chance of crossing paths with a bird that could figure him out,” Grabham says.

Grabham thinks the new findings provide interesting insights into caring for captive animals. For example, Bruce shows that replacing missing body parts with prosthetics may not always benefit an animal. If Bruce was equipped with a prosthetic beak, he may not have developed his unstoppable jousting attack.

In this way, Grabham thinks Bruce’s success may tell also us something about ourselves. “We thought that missing a beak would cause him to struggle but I think that's probably a prejudice of society's view on disabilities,” he says. “We associate disability with struggle and stress, but Bruce shows us it can be the opposite.”