Mate-bonding

[Pajarita]

Anybody who has read my postings knows that there are three basic tenets of bird husbandry that I always insist on:

1. Solar schedule
2. Fresh food diet
3. Mates or, at least, another bird companion

We have talked and debated about the solar schedule versus a human light schedule as well as the benefits of a fresh food diet versus pellets very often and both subjects have been dissected and argued about many, many times to the point that I feel that there is actually little to add, but I don't think that I have ever explained, in the same detail, why I think that they need a bird mate to be happy. I also don't think that people realize the depth of such need.

There was a poster who recently compared the feelings of a conure that had been separated from his mate of years to a child going to school for the first time and missing his mother -and, ever since I read it, my mind kept on coming back to this comment over and over as well to Wolf's comment that parrots have feelings, same as we do. I am not criticizing the actual comment, mind you, I use it myself very often because, as anthropocentric as we humans are, it is usually one of the best arguments there is when it comes to convincing people to do a bit more for their birds. But, in reality, when it comes to love for their mates, this could not be further from the truth because our feelings of love are nothing compared to theirs! If there was a spouse-love scale, we humans might rate a 5 in the best of circumstances but ALL parrots rate a solid 10!

Monogamous avian species that mate for life (like parrots, swans, pigeons, eagles, etc) don't regard their mates the way we do. For one thing, humans are not really monogamous and they don't mate for life - oh, you do find the exceptional couple that married when very young and lived all their lives together but, even these exceptions don't spend every single second of the day and every day of every year of their entire life together. People go to work, go shopping, husbands watch the football game on TV while the wife cooks in the kitchen, wife gardens while husband putters in the shed, etc But not parrots. They spend every second of 24/7/365/life together. And they don't do it because they have to, because they have nowhere to go or nothing else to do, they do it because they want to! Because, to them, their life is not complete unless they are with their beloved.

Anybody who has mated pairs can see the love and devotion they have for one another but what most people don't realize is how profound, how essential, how peremptory this need to be with their mates is. I assume you have all heard of racing pigeons but what you might not know is that they fly more than 1,000 miles to come back home (as in the Barcelona International, the longest and most prestigious pigeon race there is). And I don't know if you, guys, have ever heard of Cher Ami so I'll tell you the story (I love this story!). During WW1, they had no other mode of communication between the front lines and the commanding posts than pigeons because there were no walky-talkies, no telegraph or phone lines, nothing so each unit had its own birds which had been donated by British pigeon fanciers. These birds traveled with the units in baskets and were cared for by a specially trained Army soldiers called the Pigeoneers. Well, there was a unit that got cut off and was outnumbered and surrounded by enemies in Flanders and, although they fought and fought, they couldn't find a way out and, eventually, they also started getting hit by friendly fire because nobody knew they were still there so they sent, one by one, their pigeons out asking to be rescued. But they were all shot down by the Germans until there was only one left, Cher Ami. She was released and promptly shot down but she gained flight again and made it to the commanding post 25 miles away in only 25 minutes thereby saving the lives of the soldiers. When she arrived, they found the Germans had shot one of her eyes out, she had a bullet in her chest and one leg hanging by a single tendon but even as grievously wounded as she was, she kept on flying. She was awarded a couple of medals and awards, including the Croix de Guerre by the French government and later died from the wounds she received in combat - there is a statue of her in a Pigeoneer cemetery in Flanders and her body is at the Smithsonian Museum on display. But the reason why I am telling you this story is the following: do you know how pigeon racing hobbyists ensure the birds they release will come back no matter how far away they are or how difficult the journey might bes? They keep their mates at home! Because they know that there is nothing on this earth that is stronger than their need to return to the one they love!

And this is the way monogamous, mate-for-life birds feel for their mates and why I think that all captive parrots should have mates of their own: because their love for their mates is so intense, so all-consuming, so deep, so needy that there is no way on this green earth that they can ever be satisfied with what, in comparison, it must seem to them nothing but a part-time superficial infatuation on our part.

[Wolf]

Love the post!! Actually I meant that they have emotions , just as we also have emotions, they have the same feelings as we have, but the statement does nothing to address the depth of their feelings ( emotions). Humans have never shown the same devotion, the same depth of feelings as any animal. When we speak of the depth of their emotion or their devotion one toward another, humans just don't compare.

[Pajarita]

EXACTLY!!!! And that's my point! We can't even imagine this kind of love because we simply have no 'measuring stick' for it!

[Wolf]

I have seen it all of my life, but it seems that when most humans see it, they are compelled to deny its existence, probably due to the fact that (1) they think of themselves as better than an animal and (2) because they simply can't comprehend such a love.

[liz]

Paj, that was a great explanation. I know the story but did not know she was going back to her mate.
Yes pets have emotions. I believe they have emotions that we don't even know exist.

[Pajarita]

Well, I think people's way of thinking that animals don't have 'noble' feelings like us (as if we actually did!) comes from the fact that we did not know about them until very recently. Sheesh, people didn't even use pain killers on animals or even anesthesia to dock tails and ears in dogs! We thought that animals were little living machines that just did their work like a wind-up toy would, they moved, they made noises, they run out of winding and died, but they did not feel. I never had any doubt in my mind that they felt both feelings and pain and was always flabbergasted by people's ignorance of the fact but, apparently, this was not 'common' knowledge. And you still see it today: "It's only a bird!"

[shiraartain]

I actually did not know that story- wow!

I hope to get Fajr a friend once things settle down around here with our new additions, but we'll see when that happens. Could be a while yet.