Visual aspects of individual recognition in grey parrots

This diploma thesis is focused on research of individual recognition in African grey parrots based on visual cues from stimulus card made from photographs of familiar conspecifics, specifically on testing the significance of selected visual features. Theoretical part of the thesis deals with the general individual recognition ability followed by specifics of this ability in humans, non-human primates and birds including African grey parrot. Great attention is paid specifically to the individual recognition ability in humans, since it is the aim of this thesis to interpret the results of hypotheses testing comparatively. In order to test the hypotheses seven modifications of conspecifics' photographs were created. Experiment employed matching-to- sample as method, subjects were three African grey parrots. Findings were to a large extent in accordance with findings of analogical studies that used human subjects. Results imply, that visual information in African grey parrot is processed holistically, with structure and pigmentation of feathers on the abdominal part of the parrot having most likely the highest significance for successful individual recognition of a familiar conspecific. Key words: individual recognition, African grey parrot, comparative cognition, visual recognitio