Perroquets : leur extraordinaire diversité ! - C'est pas sorcier [Intégrale]

Come on, look, it's easy. Peanuts. Peanuts? Peanuts. Hey, Jamy, who are you talking to? To my wig. The wig we gave you for Christmas? Come on, Jamy, it's not a real wig. It's not a real wig. Peanuts? Ah, yes, okay, I see. Peanuts? Jamy, you'd better join me. Parc des Oiseaux, Villar-les-Dombes. Here we have real wigs. The proof. Why, he's good, my wig. Come on, Marcel, to the Parc des Oiseaux. Nice of you. Peanuts? Who's laughing? We are at the Parc des Oiseaux in Villar-les-Dombes, in L'Ain, and it's time to feed the wigs. On the menu, fruits, sunflower seeds and honey bread. Not bad, eh? So, the wigs belong to the Psittaciformes order, an order that brings together more than 360 species, species that are all different from each other. The largest of the wigs is this one up there, the Ara yacinth. It can measure from the tip of the beak to the tip of the tail, one meter in width. But there are also much smaller ones, the parrots. Yes, the parrot. It's not the female of the wig, but a whole species of Psittaciformes. Come on, to the table! Enjoy, because in principle, parrots do not live in our latitudes. To observe them in the wild, you have to head south. Indeed, these volatiles have colonized almost all regions, from the tropics of cancer to the most austral lands. Be careful, that does not mean that they pollinate, but simply that they are present, here or there, in all this part of the world. Except, but you can imagine, on the Antarctic continent. I am sure you have already seen this species of parakeet. It is the one that is traditionally found on the shoulders of pirates. It is the Ara, at least one species of Ara. He is an Ara rona rat. His name is Tatu, he is one and a half years old. He was born here, but in the wild. He lives in Brazil. Do you recognize them, Sabine? All green and smaller than the Aras, they live in the same regions as them. Moreover, they bear their name very well, they are Amazons. The Aras and the Amazons live in Central and South America, in the tropical forest, but not only. Even in the middle of the savannah and the tropical forest, for the Grey of Gabon, another star of the parakeet family. The Grey of Gabon, as its name indicates, lives in Africa, in Gabon in particular. Jamy, here it is, the Grey of Gabon. Indeed, it is entirely grey, except its tail, which is a beautiful red. You know, among parakeets, the Grey of Gabon is the one that is famous for its whistling and especially for its imitations. Ouch, you scratched my tampon! Great imitation, Coco! Another very famous species of parakeet is the Kakatoes, with its magnificent hump on its head. Look how pretty it is. Let's try to deploy it a little more. It's beautiful, isn't it? This Kakatoes comes from the Moluc islands. It is very beautiful and very kind, and above all, it loves being scratched on the top of its head. Let's continue our flight over the planet. The Kakatoes lives in Oceania, in Australia in particular, although it is also found in Indonesia, a region of the world where there is also a small parakeet, the Lori, very widespread in this region. Here they are, the Loris, with their multicoloured plumage. The Psittaciformes are arboreal birds. Given that there are trees and ponds nearby, parakeets adapt to all tropical environments. They are found in the canopy of the Amazon rainforests as well as in the Australian bush or the African savannah. The Kea is an exception. This parakeet, which lives in New Zealand, can withstand the extreme conditions of the mountains and has a great personality. The proximity of the man does not bother him at all and he loves to make the 400 shots. It's pretty, isn't it? This is our new friend, the Rosalbin, a small Kakatoes, native to Australia. Like all parakeets, the Kakatoes love to live in the trees. It is arboreal. It is very well adapted to this lifestyle thanks to its legs. They are zygodactylic. Instead of having three fingers in front and one behind like most birds, it has two fingers in front and two fingers behind, which allows it to hang like a rope. To seduce their partners or catch an inaccessible fruit, these exuberant birds do not miss the opportunity to test their acrobat skills. They are so comfortable in the trees that they use their legs and beaks to move forward, as if they had three legs. They are excellent climbers. Is it good, Tatou? Do you recognize Tatou? This is our young Ara, Ara Arona. Look how he eats the nuts. He uses his leg to carry the fruit to his beak. The parakeet uses his leg like a hand and he is the only bird to be able to do it. Look at his beak and the tongue inside. Contrary to what one might think, the upper part of the parakeet's beak is not hollow, it is full with a kind of palate with stripes. With the big tongue in his mouth, he sticks the nut on his palate and can easily cut it off. I don't know if you noticed, but the mobility of Tatou's beak is incredible. It really looks like a tool. It's a matter of muscles. To open their beak, the birds use a muscle located at the back of the skull. When they contract it, the lower jaw goes down and with a play of thumbs, the upper jaw pivots slightly. To close their beak, the birds use another muscle. This one, when they contract it, all the elements take back their initial place, as you can see. The opening and closing of the beak is essentially based on the movement of the lower jaw. The parakeet has something more. This muscle. When the beak is open and the parakeet contracts this muscle, well, as you can see, it gives movement to the upper jaw much more than before. Thus, it acquires ease to return the objects it holds in its beak. Jamy, how does it open a nut with a beak? I can't do it. I'm sure I'll break my teeth. How do you do it? A beak is, in a way, a clamp. All clamps have different powers. Let's compare a large and a small clamp. With equal force applied at the same place, well, the resultant of this force is more important than the resultant at the end of the small clamp. Well, for birds, it's exactly the same story. The parakeet, having a beak shorter than other birds, the resultant at the end of its beak is more important than at the end of a heron's beak, for example. But that doesn't explain everything. Let's now move the force along the beak. The more we move this force from the axis of rotation, the more the force at the end of the beak is important. It's a bit like the grapher's story. When you press here, you can't graph. Whereas here, it's a child's play. Well, for the parakeet, it's still the same thing. The muscle that closes the beak, this one, is moved from the axis of rotation, much further away than other birds. That's why the force at the end of the parakeet's beak is so important, which allows it to break nuts. Don't you think you're repeating a bit too much? Well, yes, but it's a show about parakeets. To keep a beak that's still sharp, the parakeet has to file it regularly because it's horned and grows permanently. It uses pieces of wood as well as stones. This formidable tool allows our gluttonous bird to eat everything, from berries, which it gently peels, to peas, sweet fruits, to palm nuts with a robust shell. In the tropical forest of South America, it even eats toxic seeds, and to protect its stomach, it ingests a clay soil that it finds on its kaolin palaces. Not a stupid animal! Loris, on the other hand, enjoy pollen that they take with their little tongue in the shape of a brush. In Australia, some kakatoes, with a voracious appetite, prefer to serve themselves directly in the cultures. They find easy food there and have become a real nuisance for the farmers. Can you hear that? They keep talking to each other. Here we have a group of inseparables, small African parakeets. Like all their congeners, the inseparables live in groups. Within the group, when a male meets a female, they live as a couple for the rest of their existence. In short, parakeets are social animals and it is because they maintain very strong relationships that they need to communicate with each other. But you will see that parakeets are also capable of amazing vocal performances. In the wild, parakeets are capable of emitting extremely different sounds. But when they are raised by men, like Tattoo, instead of maintaining social relations with other parakeets, they communicate with their adoptive parents and they are able to vocalize. Tattoo, for example, knows how to say peanut. For him, it means treats, nuts, peanuts, he doesn't really care. But I don't want to give it to him right now because it's not very polite, even for a parakeet. How do parakeets emit a sound? Well, they have an organ called the syrinx. You see here the trachea. This syrinx is at the base of the trachea, just behind. Here we see it a little better. The air the bird breathes circulates through this organ. To whistle, the bird closes the passage and regulates the opening thanks to small muscles that stretch a membrane at the passage of air. The membrane vibrates and it is this vibration that is at the origin of the whistle, more or less serious, depending on the tension of the membrane. Okay, Jamy, but parakeets don't just whistle, they speak, they vocalize, they speak! You speak? So how do we humans speak? Well, first you have to emit a sound. And there, the physical principle is basically the same, except that the vocal cords, two vibrating muscles, are not at the base, but at the top of the trachea, at the level of what is called the larynx. Now let's go from sound to speech. The technique is very simple. Just resonate the vibration in what is called a resonance box, in this case in the mouth. And by varying the volume of this resonance box with the tongue, the jaw, the lips, well, we manage to pronounce A's, O's, U's, I's. If the parakeet manages to speak, it is because it also has resonance boxes, two exactly, of which it manages to vary the volume. First, the air column located above the larynx, of which it varies the volume thanks to a pseudolarynx that goes up and down, and then the beak, of which it varies the volume thanks to a thick, fleshy tongue. Parakeets are excellent imitators, and in contact with humans, this sometimes gives surprising results. The most talented of them use a vocabulary of several hundred words. An American researcher, Irene Pepperberg, has obtained much more. These parakeets are not only able to designate objects without making a mistake, but they can also indicate the color and the material. They manipulate real concepts. She can also show them a set of different objects and tell them, in all these objects, which one is blue and made of metal. And the parakeet will spot this object, while there are several that are blue, several that are made of metal. From the point of view of the abstraction capacity, the use of concepts like the same, different, bigger, smaller, he is also able to do that. It corresponds to the capacity of a 3-4 year old child. And when a parakeet gives voice, it's up to you to close the beak. You must have noticed, parakeets display extraordinary colors. And it's not a coincidence, it's a means of visual communication, a way of saying to their peers, hey, do you recognize me? I am here. But contrary to what happens with other birds, where very often the male has very bright colors or a plumage more abundant than that of the female, in parakeets there is no difference between the male and the female. It is practically impossible to differentiate them. You don't want any more? Well, then I'm going to see the exception of the parakeet. We have here, look, a couple of eclectus, so different from each other that for a long time we thought they were two different species. And since eclectus do nothing like the others, well, it's the female who has the brightest colors. Look, red and blue. She is beautiful. Well, the male is not ugly either, uniformly green. And you would like to know why parakeets are colored, where do all these colors come from? Well, it's Jamy who's going to tell us. Come closer, you will see all the colors. Because to tell you this story, I took out my most beautiful feather. Wow, the style! But no, I'm not talking about style, I'm talking about the model, the feather. It is made up of a main axis from which stems leave called beards. And from beards, even thinner stems called beards. Inside beards and beards, there are pigments that react to light like all pigments. How? Well, the light emitted by the sun is made up of a multitude of rays. Some are visible, others not. Red pigments absorb the colors of the visible spectrum, except one, the red it sends back. And that's why Sabine's parakeet appears red. Hey Jamy, you know what Mr. Eclectus That his wife didn't have blue pigments. And yet she has blue feathers, that's for sure. Excuse me? It's not true! You know the explanation, Jamy, it's crazy! Yes. Let's look at a pair of beards. A bearded beard. Well, you follow me. A beard is actually made up of cavities full of air in which tiny granules float. When they are not stopped by pigments, the rays emitted by the sun arrive right here. Let's stop for a moment on the visible light. Light travels in the form of electromagnetic waves, whose length varies depending on the color. Thus, blue has a wavelength shorter than red. When these waves cross the beards and the beards, most of them cross all the layers before being absorbed by the moth. Most of them, except the shorter waves that hit the microgranules. Thus, blue and purple are sent back to our eyes. That's why the female Eclectus, although not having blue pigments, nevertheless has beautiful feathers of a deep blue. In the case of this bird, it is said that blue has a physical origin, while red has a chemical origin because of the pigments. Ok, Jamy. Mr. Eclectus and I have understood. Feathers are red because they have red pigments. Other feathers are blue by diffraction of light. What about green feathers? Where do they come from? Mr. Eclectus and I would like to know. Well, the feathers of evil, the beards and the beards, contain yellow pigments that send back the yellow light elsewhere. Beards and beards also contain microgranules that reflect the shortest wave lengths, blue. And the mixture of yellow and blue, I won't teach you anything. It's green. While green is the best camouflage in the forest, the brightest colors allow parakeets to keep a permanent visual contact, especially in flight. They travel long distances every day to find their food and staying in groups is the best way to escape potential predators. Arriving on feeding areas, our parakeets, ordinarily so noisy, are as discreet as possible. But when the evening comes, they return to their nest and quickly find their habits of noisy birds. We are here at the nursery, where we take care of the parakeets. And look here, we have a whole family of parakeet babies between 25 and 30 days old. The wisest ones are the two little inseparables whose frill is barely visible. They are nice. We also have a little amazon. For the moment, it doesn't look like much, but it will have a nice adult green plumage. Here we have a macaw. It will be yellow, red and blue at the tips of its wings. And finally, the brightest one, the star, the kea of New Zealand. It is the first time in France that we witness the birth of a little kea. Every morning, we weigh the babies to follow their growth. You, comrade, 232.50 grams. Not bad! Once weighed, we feed them, not with the bottle, but with the syringe. This is done under the control of Eric, who is a veterinarian at the park. Which one? The kea. Come on, boy, let's go. We will give them a cereal boil enriched with protein. Come here, comrade. The feeding operation is a bit like in nature, where the parents regurgitate. Do you see what I'm doing? Tell me, Eric, why do we separate them from their parents? We separate them for two reasons. First, here in the nursery, as we control all the temperature, the bad weather, we have much more breeding success. Not that the parents are bad parents, but here we have more facility. And then, especially, the second thing is that when we remove the bridge, in fact, the parents, as in nature, redo a replacement bridge to replace the lost bridge. And this replacement bridge, we let the parents raise it. In fact, it promotes reproduction, to keep them here in the nursery. It allows us to have more young and on rare species like the kea, it interests us a lot. And once they have grown up, what happens? Do they return with their parents? It depends on the species. The kea, indeed, this young one will return to the colony with the parents. The amazon or the hara will go to another park to form a new couple. With the exception of small African parakeets who make huge collective nests with twigs, parakeets never build their nests. They raise their young inside hollow trees that they find in nature. And without the presence of these trees, they stop reproducing. Parakeets are therefore mainly victims of the massive deforestation of tropical regions. Today, out of the 360 species of parakeets, 80 are threatened with extinction. For example, these green-cheeked amazons that come from Mexico, how many are left in the wild? We estimate the population between 3,500 and 6,000 individuals. And what happened to them? They are birds that have been exported to the United States in the 1980s, where 18,000 to 20,000 birds have been caught. Since then, however, they have disappeared from the forests and galleries because we planted a lot of sorghum and the forests have been cut to be able to plant the sorghum. So there is no place to nest, the trees have disappeared or continue to disappear. For example, the individuals that are kept in captivity are equipped with a ring. They are identified, we ring them. A ring is our internal number. We can also equip them with an electronic chip. Look, there is one here. An electronic chip with an animal registration number. Thanks to this chip, we can identify the animal. This is a much more reliable system. First of all, it is very reliable, it lives longer as a bird and then it is unfalsifiable. A ring can still be removed. But it is not always very good for an individual to have a parakeet at home, especially a rare parakeet. Yes, what is very important about rare species is to reproduce them so as not to lose a genetic heritage. These birds must be reproduced to be able to keep them for future generations. Anyway, Jamy, parakeet trade is regulated by an international text called the Washington Convention. The Washington Convention aims to protect many species, including parakeets. There are several levels of protection. The most protected animals are listed in the Annex I. The parakeet is one of them. Indeed, this bird is on the verge of extinction. As a result, it is strictly forbidden to extract it from its natural environment, to transport it and to sell it. Therefore, it is out of question to acquire one, except if the parents of this bird are born in captivity. A third of parakeets appear in this Annex I. More accessible parakeets like the grey parakeet of Gabon, but not in any condition. These birds must have been taken by patented hunters and sold under control. Be assured, if you wish to acquire one, otherwise you could be at fault. Finally, even parakeets are protected, although we have the right to possess them. Last thing, in France, the Washington Convention is reinforced by the Guiana Act, which stipulates that all animals that live freely in this department are forbidden to trade. On the other hand, there are no restrictions on parakeets. Yes, Jamy, yes. Unfortunately, he is not a plush, and the trade of parakeets is an extremely profitable activity. 45,000 euros is the average price of a parakeet. Some are therefore tempted to take them in the wild and import them illegally, especially since the sanctions remain very light compared to the expected profits. So, if you absolutely want to acquire a parakeet, be assured that it is born in captivity. It will be more expensive, but an animal accustomed to man will suffer much less than if it were captured in its natural environment. And above all, know that a parakeet at home is a big deal. It is noisy and degrades everything that happens to it close to the beak. Come on, good luck! And yes, a parakeet makes mistakes. Certainly, the relationship may be very strong, but it requires a constant affective presence. Otherwise, the bird self-mutilates and lets itself go. And when you know that a parakeet lives on average 50 years, it is really a very long-term commitment. What is he making, Jamy? A truck. Marcel, I can't find the keys to the truck. I don't know. You must have lost them. Oh, the keys to the truck! Marcel is not going to be happy. Not happy at all. Which one of you stole the keys to Marcel's truck? I'm going to get into an argument. I wasn't supposed to take those keys. Did you take the keys? Did you? Who are you?