Kea, the world's only alpine parrot, are exceptionally intelligent and require extremely high levels of cognitive stimulation in captivity to prevent behavioral problems and ensure welfare.
Kea welfare in captivity demands extraordinary levels of cognitive challenge that most institutions struggle to consistently provide. Their active neophilia means that any enrichment item becomes habituated to rapidly, requiring constant novelty and complexity escalation. The mismatch between their cognitive capabilities and typical zoo enrichment provision leads to boredom, frustration, and the development of destructive and stereotypic behaviors. Best practice involves multiple daily enrichment sessions with novel, high-complexity problem-solving tasks, social grouping that allows cooperative problem-solving, and enclosure complexity that rewards continuous investigation. Kea welfare is an active area of research at institutions including Smithsonian's National Zoo and Zurich Zoo.