Even while she enjoys the presence of people and acts charmingly, rubbing herself and endorsing them
she changes COMPLETELY upon seeing female humans
The two-sided caique, Bangwool’s story begins NOW
Bangwool's guardian: Bangwool, come here. Good girl
This is Bangwool, a black-headed caique parrot
Bangwool is the animal of the day! What a cutie ❤
She's so charming and gentle, kissing her guardian.
She’s friendly toward the production crew she just met today
She even picks hair for the production crew
So what's the issue here? She seems like a one, lovely, friendly parrot
Right then...
she springs out at a female staff out of the blue…
She won’t stop even when she’s pulled away
Production crew: I got a hole in my sock
Bangwool’s guardian: When there are a male and a female,
she follows around males and loves them, and rides on their shoulders, but
for females, rather than liking them… she attacks and pecks them… so I’m concerned…
She's fine around the male production crew, gentle, and calm
Bangwool’s angelic toward males
Happy? She's happy right now.
So dispatched both male and female production crew, both strangers to Bangwool
Will Bangwool only attack the female staff?
For a few seconds, she seemed to think for a little bit, and
she springs at the female staff
Okay, okay, okay, please, not my toes! Ahhh!
She attacks her persistently, without giving her any breaks
You're bleeding / Really?
Bangwool's guardian: You can't be off-guard
Production crew: Why…. why only attack us? TwT
Producer: It must be hard to invite people over with Bangwool
Bangwool’s guardian: It is. People who’ve been pecked say they’re scared to come over
and it’s hard to invite guests over, and even when we do invite people, it’s concerning
Bangwool attacks all women other than her own family members
That afternoon
A female guest came over to their place. She looks pretty nervous entering in...
After putting Bangwool inside her cage she she won't bolt at the guest,
the guest takes her outerwear off
But right then, Bangwool opens the cage herself and escapes
She rushes at the guest right away…
Feeling apologetic, the guardian asks if she's okay and laughs awkwardly
For such reasons, guests have to wear protective devices inside
Even with the protective gear, everyone's on their toes as they're not sure what would happen
And again, Bangwool takes her chance and attacks
Guest: She bit my arm
The guest covers her arms even more, and pats the dog nervously, with her eyes fixed on Bangwool
Bangwool's guardian: What's wrong with you?
The guardian tries to scold Bangwool, but it doesn't work. Bangwool only tries to escape from her, trying to go attack again
Bangwool’s guardian: I think she knows how to distinguish males and females
But, I’m not sure of her distinguishing standards
She doesn’t just look at the person straight, but she tilts her head as if she thinks
She studies the person’s features and appearance first
Then, she attacks
An experiment to see if she can really distinguish females from males
The female staff disguises as a male,
and the male staff disguises as a female
After disguising themselves, the disguised female staff approaches Bangwool…
Bangwool flies over to the table where the disguised female staff is
And the male staff disguised as a female staff joins the party
Come here. Bangwool, I'm your sister
She doesn’t attack the female staff disguised as a male…!
Will we succeed in fooling her?
Nevermind… she soon realizes it’s a trick and attacks the disguised female
Why so sudden? / I think she realized you're a female!
Bangwool's guardian: What's wrong with you? That's so sudden
How come Bangwool only attacks females?
Sophie, parrot trainer: Well, if something scary happened, but if there was a male present, they may link that scary experience with being around that kind of person.
And also, sometimes, the consequence of what they experienced may influence what they do more of
As we saw in some of the videos, naturally, the females are reacting because they are bitten
And because there is a lot of noise, movement, and excitement, that is making the bird do it more because she finds that exciting
The hypothesis is this: Her aggression was triggered by an unpleasant experience with a female human or
she might have perceived females’ reactions as something fun
How can we decrease her aggression toward females?
David, parrot trainer: We call it "target training"
If she touches the end of the stick, she gets a reward
That's as simple as that. You get the bird to touch it
Why it's important is because it creates a lot of clear communication between Bangwool and the person training Bangwool
Items needed for the training: A stick and a rewarding snack
It’s a simple training where a reward is given when Bangwool bites onto the stick
Repeated training with her guardian to give her ample amount of experience
Bangwool's getting the concept!
When the guardian posts the stick a bit away from Bangwool on the counter, Bangwool follows the stick to get the reward!
If she's target trained, you can use the stick to lure her away, getting to the target and rewarding her instead
We call it "redirection". You can use it to redirect Bangwool away from aggressive behaviors
Now that she has trained with her guardian, we'll train her with a female guest over!
When Bangwool was trying to spring toward a female guest,
the guardian redirects her attention toward the stick and rewards her with a snack
When Bangwool turns to target the guest, redirects her with a stick again!
Then…! She didn’t attack the guest as her target has changed to the stick!
This time, the female guest trains Bangwool herself and Bangwool follows along pretty well
This time, trying to hold Bangwool without the stick!
Everyone: Woaaah! / Good girl! Good girl, Bangwool! Good girl!
Now she won’t attack the guest even without the stick!
Woah, I can pat her now
Bangwool’s guardian: Now, we’ll invite our friends and my daughter’s friends as well
I think it’ll be nice to invite them over and be able to stay trouble-free with Bangwool around
Bangwool used to attack only females.
But, we hope she’ll live happily as a friendly caique to all humans :)