Dr. Georgia Mason, director of U of G’s Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare spoke to CBC Radio’s As It Happens about recent research that saw parrots being trained to video call one another. 

Mason was not involved in the study but has researched parrot welfare. She commented video calls could help parrots’ wellbeing, but real interaction with other parrots is better. 

Mason is a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology who studies how animals fare in captive housing conditions, including conditions that are too small or monotonous to allow an animal’s natural behaviour.