ARE PSITTACINES AN APPROPRIATE ANIMAL-MODEL OF HANDEDNESS IN HUMANS

Past studies have suggested that parrots may be unique among animals i n showing limb preference-footedness-that is similar to human handedne ss. Most of these studies, however, have relied on relatively small sa mples of genera from different zoographical regions, and few have soug ht to control for certain variables that could influence foot preferen ce. We therefore employed a standardized repeated-measures method for assessment of footedness and collected data on 522 parrots from severa l species. After controlling for several potential modifying variables , our results indicate that, at the population level, only Australasia n parrots may provide a true animal model of human handedness.