Adult Kea (Photo By Edward the compressor – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63905822)

Dear Readers, back in 2013 a student at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, found a straggly, underweight Kea. The bird had lost the top half of its bill, and was in bad shape. Keas are intelligent but belligerent members of the parrot family, and are also an endangered species, so it was decided to rescue the bird and look after it in captivity. Because it was so small, the parrot was initially thought to be female, and was named Kati. However, DNA testing showed that Kati was actually male, and so he was christened ‘Bruce’ – ‘the silliest name we could think of’ according to scientist Ximena Nelson.

Bruce the Kea – photo by Ximena Nelson

Well. Bruce soon adapted to his new home with nine males and three females ( a group of keas is known as a ‘circus’, and as these are some of the most mischievous parrots around this feels wholly appropriate). His broken beak turned out to be a frighteningly dangerous weapon, and this 800 gram character was soon bossing birds weighing over a kilogram by threatening injury (and sometimes actually stabbing) the other male birds. He took over all four of the feeding stations, and some of the less dominant birds preen him and clean his lower beak. In 36 observed conflicts, Bruce won the lot. And so,  Bruce has turned his injury into an advantage, and is living his best life. When he was originally found, there were thoughts of providing him with a prosthetic beak, but he seems to be doing very nicely without one.

“I really like Bruce, actually,” Nelson says. “When there is reason to fight, yeah, he’ll fight and he’ll fight hard, and scrappy. But he’s not a bully.”

You can read the article in New Scientist here.

The journal article is here.