aviary: Some building or other human-made enclosure designed to house birds.

baboon: A large ground-dwelling African monkey with a long, doglike snout and large teeth. Baboons are social animals and live in troops.

behavior: The way something (often a person or other organism) conducts itself or acts towards others.

behavioral ecologist: A scientist who studies how animal behavior relates to where animals live.

biology: The study of living things. The scientists who study them are known as biologists.

birds: Warm-blooded dinosaurs with wings that first showed up at least 150 million years ago. Birds are jacketed in feathers and produce young from the eggs they deposit in some sort of nest. Most birds fly, but throughout history there have been the occasional species that don’t.

ecologist: A scientist who works in a branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.

hierarchy: The ranking or organization of things or individuals — one above the other — based on their perceived importance, authority or status. Colloquially, among animals within a community, this might be referred to as their pecking order.

hormone: (in zoology and medicine) A chemical produced in a gland and then carried in the bloodstream to another part of the body. Hormones control many important body activities, such as growth. Hormones act by triggering or regulating chemical reactions in the body.

innovation: (v. to innovate; adj. innovative) An adaptation or improvement to an existing idea, process or product that is new, clever, more effective or more practical.

New Zealand: An island nation in the southwest Pacific Ocean, roughly 1,500 kilometers (some 900 miles) east of Australia. Its “mainland” — consisting of a North and South Island — is quite volcanically active. In addition, the country includes many far smaller offshore islands.

physical: (adj.) A term for things that exist in the real world, as opposed to in memories or the imagination. It can also refer to properties of materials that are due to their size and non-chemical interactions (such as when one block slams with force into another). (in biology and medicine) The term can refer to the body, as in a physical exam or physical activity.

perk: An abbreviation for perquisite. It’s a term for some advantage or privilege given to workers in addition to their salary. It might range from free coffee at the office to a company phone or free gym membership. For an airline pilot, it might be the ability to fly free on other airlines.

polio: An infectious viral disease that affects the central nervous system and can cause temporary or permanent paralysis.

preen: (in biology) A verb for the way birds straighten and clean their feathers.

psychologist: A scientist or mental-health professional who studies the mind, especially in relation to actions and behaviors. Some work with people. Others may conduct experiments with animals (usually rodents) to test how their minds respond to different stimuli and conditions.

ranking: An ordering of things or individuals based on some scale or agree-upon values; a hierarchy.

social: (adj.) Relating to gatherings of people; a term for animals (or people) that prefer to exist in groups. (noun) A gathering of people, for instance those who belong to a club or other organization, for the purpose of enjoying each other’s company.

stress: (in biology) A factor — such as unusual temperatures, movements, moisture or pollution — that affects the health of a species or ecosystem. (in psychology) A mental, physical, emotional or behavioral reaction to an event or circumstance (stressor) that disturbs a person or animal’s usual state of being or places increased demands on a person or animal; psychological stress can be either positive or negative. (in physics) Pressure or tension exerted on a material object.

system: A network of parts that together work to achieve some function. For instance, the blood, vessels and heart are primary components of the human body's circulatory system. Similarly, trains, platforms, tracks, roadway signals and overpasses are among the potential components of a nation's railway system. System can even be applied to the processes or ideas that are part of some method or ordered set of procedures for getting a task done.

Tanzania: A nation in East Africa that sits just south of the equator. It’s well known in science communities as home to the East African Rift valley, where many hominid fossils have turned up. With a small population, many big wildlife species remain, including lions, rhinos, elephants, zebras, hippos, cheetahs and giraffes. The country is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east; Kenya and Uganda to the north; Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo to the west; and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the south. It became a country in 1964. Its capital is Dodoma.

unique: Something that is unlike anything else; the only one of its kind.

Journal:​ A.A. Grabham et al. A disabled kea parrot is the alpha male of his circus. Current Biology. Vol. 36, April 20, 2026, p. R320. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2026.03.004.

Journal:​ A.P.M. Bastos et al. Self-care tooling innovation in a disabled kea (Nestor notabilis). Scientific Reports. Vol. 11, September 10, 2021. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-97086-w.

Journal:​ N.E. Newton-Fisher and S.S.K. Kaburu. Grooming decisions under structural despotism: the impact of social rank and bystanders among wild male chimpanzees. Animal Behaviour. Vol. 128, June 2017, p. 153. doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.04.012.

Journal:​ L.R. Gesquiere et al. Life at the top: rank and stress in wild male baboons. Science. Vol. 333, July 15, 2011, p. 357. doi:10.1126/science.1207120.