Post by Elsevier

Bruce the kea parrot is missing his entire upper beak. He is also the undefeated alpha male of his group. New research in Elsevier’s Current Biology by Cell Press shows how Bruce, an endangered kea at Willowbank Wildlife Reserve in New Zealand, developed a novel “beak jousting” technique using his exposed lower beak. Across recorded male dominance interactions, Bruce won every interaction he was part of. His jousting displaced opponents immediately 73% of the time and gave him priority access to feeders and social grooming. Read more. 👇