Parrot eyes avoid UV damage

A study into UV-sensitive vision in parrots, undertaken by a team of researchers headed by Winthrop Professor David Hunt of The University of Western Australia's School of Animal Biology, was published online yesterday in Proceedings of the Royal Society.

UV sensitivity is rare among mammals and is certainly absent in humans but was known from Professor Hunt's previous work to be present in two species of parrot, the budgerigar and African grey. The present work has extended the study to include representatives from all the long-lived parrots - South American macaws, Caribbean amazons, Indonesian and Australian cockatoos, the Australian rosella and the New Zealand kea - in all, a total of 14 species. In every case, the findings indicate that UV-sensitivity is present.

Since these birds have a life-span similar to that of humans - there is anecdotal evidence that Winston Churchill's African Grey lived to the ripe old age of 104 - it raises the question of how their eyes cope with long-term UV exposure. "We humans wear sunglasses to protect our eyes from UV rays but this is not a luxury that is available to a parrot," Professor Hunt said.