(Nestor notabilis) Husbandry Manual - Kea Conservation Trust

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over a 2 month period. Kea territorial range for a breeding pair in the wild is
estimated at 4km2 (Bond & Diamond, 1992).
For a highly intelligent, social and mobile parrot species living in a complex alpine
environment, flight, social interactions and exploration are fundamental
behaviours for kea. Unfortunately captive environments for birds often allow only
limited expression of these behaviours (Engebretson, 2006), denial of which can
result in physical (Graham 1998) and behavioural abnormalities (van Hoek & ten
Cate 1998; Garner et al., 2003b; Meehan et al., 2003a, 2004; Meehan et al.,
2003b cited in Engebretson, 2006).
A measure of adequate housing for kea is difficult to define as a smaller but more
complex enclosure may be preferable to a large empty one. It is a combination
of enclosure size, complexity and enrichment that helps prevent
stereotypies and encourages the expression of natural behaviours in kea.
All holders must provide sufficient space and enrichment so that birds do not
develop overt stereotypic behaviours.
Research on the development of locomotor stereotypies (route tracing) in parrots
has been identified as related to lack of space and physical complexity while
development of oral stereotypies (i.e. feather plucking) to lack of opportunity to
perform foraging behaviour. Both stereotypy types are seen to be related to lack
of social interaction (Sargent & Keiper 1967; Keiper 1969; Meehan et al., 2003a,
2004; Meehan et al., 2003b cited in Engebretson, 2006). Changes in the captive
environment including enclosure size, enrichment, and socialisation have been
shown to improve the welfare of captive parrots (Engebretson, 2006).
The high level of stereotypies observed in the New Zealand captive population
(Orr-Walker, 2005), which include both oral and locomotor stereotypies, would
suggest that the present captive environment does not provide adequately for the
welfare of kea particularly in the areas of space, complexity, social structure and
opportunity to perform foraging behaviours. Although the majority of facilities
involved in this study have exceeded pas minimum standards, the results of this
research may indicate that these still fall short for this species.
An increase in enrichment, and number of feeds per day, were seen to
significantly decrease the amount of stereotypic behaviours observed. The role of
enclosure size and social structure was less clear although as larger enclosures
tended to correspond with enclosure complexity, size may be an important factor
in reducing stereotypies by providing more areas for exploration, space between
animals and more opportunity with larger group size for socialisation.
As such, until further research can be conducted to ascertain minimum
acceptable enclosure size for kea, it should be presumed that the average
enclosure size (which provides an area of