Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Wowfunhappy 1148 days ago
> The preference of people over birds is not a good sign. Usually means he wasn't well socialized or even misimprinted. Breeders do that intentionally because people want people-focused parrots. But it's not good for them.

How are you deciding what is "good" for a parrot?

A preference for humans is certainly not natural for a parrot. However, I don't think there's anything natural about the way most humans live their lives, and I quite like modern technology. Perhaps parrots similarly appreciate being in a safe environment with loving caretakers. (Or perhaps they don't—but I don't see how we could know either way.)

Put another way, I'm not convinced that living in the wilderness and having to scrounge for food and avoid predators is necessarily a better life than living with a loving human who cares for you. Both are certainly imperfect in different ways, but unfortunately we can't ask the parrots which one they would prefer.

1 comments

Those comparisons are meaningless, because this bird is living in Human care through Human decisions (at some point...).

What is less meaningless is the idea that animals should be able to fulfill the full spectrum of their natural behavior. For parrots that means conspecific company. People don't talk like parrots and don't act like parrots. That is consensus among experts, by the way.