Do Eclectus Females Live Longer In Captivity Than Males

[Andy.]

Hi guys and girls I'm new to the Forum and Parrots and I have a female eclectus parrot. I chose a female for various reasons one being how beautiful they are. Another was my own thinking that maybe a female would live a longer healthier life in captivity. I cant find anything on this but if a female sits on the nest for a great deal of time in the wild to raise her young and protect her nest site she would be a lot more immobile than a male. That fact got me thinking that because of that wouldn't natural selection eliminate females that get the associated problems with that and be less susceptible to a lot of the problems that have effected eclectus parrots in captivity? Males in the wild would get a lot more mobile because he has food to find and multiple partners to keep happy. However the female has a long breeding season and has to sit on her nest not fly many miles to find food. Is there anything documented about this or has anyone noticed that females have less problem visits to the vets?

 

[chris-md]

Very fair observation. We barely understand longevity of ekkies in captivity. This is due to a lack of inderstanding of their diet. For decades they lived to be about 30. As knowledge has advanced regarding their unique dietary needs, it’s believed they could possibly live to be double that, and possibly do in the wild.

Do females specifically live longer? No idea since nobody’s studies this to my knowledge, but I wouldn’t expect to see a significant difference.

With regards to natural selection weeding out the females, I assume by associated problems you are referring to challenges due to immobility? one would assume that The dimorphic nature of the species lends itself to the idea that such things as metabolism rates would also vary. Given the species so far successful life history, If the females are naturally less mobile, nature would take precautions against this, such as reduce caloric requirements, lower metabolism, etc.

 

[Andy.]

Very fair observation. We barely understand longevity of ekkies in captivity. This is due to a lack of inderstanding of their diet. For decades they lived to be about 30. As knowledge has advanced regarding their unique dietary needs, it’s believed they could possibly live to be double that, and possibly do in the wild.

Do females specifically live longer? No idea since nobody’s studies this to my knowledge, but I wouldn’t expect to see a significant difference.

With regards to natural selection weeding out the females, I assume by associated problems you are referring to challenges due to immobility? one would assume that The dimorphic nature of the species lends itself to the idea that such things as metabolism rates would also vary. Given the species so far successful life history, If the females are naturally less mobile, nature would take precautions against this, such as reduce caloric requirements, lower metabolism, etc.

Yes I was thinking the same and as a result females may have a slight advantage if even not a big one. It would be interesting to hear the age of all the older Eclectus parrots and there sex. can you do a voting system on this forum on threads?

 

[SailBoat]

There is a polling system available as part of Parrot Forums.

Regarding your position. Taking a much wider view, and therefore increasing the number of active drivers that would result in a longer or shorter life should be considered. In addition, what is the natural variation between female and male chicks born.

In addition, what effects life in their Natural Range and then compared to Companion life. With kept Eclectus Parrots, diet has been found to have a serious effect on Life Span, killing both females and males equally. Add any amount of flight to either sex and life expedience increases, as well.

In summation, although there are likely historical likelihoods that one sex may out life the other. Minor changes in the life style provide by the Owner greatly out weights them.

 

[Andy.]

There is a polling system available as part of Parrot Forums.

Regarding your position. Taking a much wider view, and therefore increasing the number of active drivers that would result in a longer or shorter life should be considered. In addition, what is the natural variation between female and male chicks born.

In addition, what effects life in their Natural Range and then compared to Companion life. With kept Eclectus Parrots, diet has been found to have a serious effect on Life Span, killing both females and males equally. Add any amount of flight to either sex and life expedience increases, as well.

In summation, although there are likely historical likelihoods that one sex may out life the other. Minor changes in the life style provide by the Owner greatly out weights them.

I see your points but as we are unable to reliably record wild Eclectus and are able to reliably record captive Eclectus as 24.7 keepers we are in a position to document reliably! As there are few if any people tracking the everyday life of these parrots in the wild to even come close as we do in the greater picture. My question is not on wild eclectus just captive. I think that my thinking could prove correct and if not it will be a good discussion or argument. I always over think things lol but its always fun

 

[Soyajam]

I think there is potential for them to yes, but I think there are many complex factors at play.

For instance, if we're talking about immobility as a reason for them not living as long, there are two forms of flight pet birds experience.
- Indoor - where a flighted or clipped bird flies short distances inside a building, with no wind, and an unchanging (usually) environment.
- Outdoor (or freeflight) - where there is wind, light, moving targets and predators.

Either one of those may or may not impact their longevity.

There are other things that could reduce their longevity in captivity - one being not being fed appopriately (with their digestive systems, this is a common issue).

I also wonder what impact our suppression of their mating cycle has on them, if any. Does their hormonal frustration affect their wellbeing? etc.

 

[Anansi]

VERY interesting premise! Given the lengthy periods female ekkies spend in their tree hollows, it is indeed reasonable to figure that they may have developed an evolutionary adaptation that would, in turn, make them more suited for captive life than male ekkies who fly upwards of 40 miles a day searching for food to feed their ladies and hatchlings.

Thing is, this is a discussion that, at this point in time, can only be an academic exercise. Why? Because, as Chris pointed out, we don't have definitive data at this point on ekkie lifespans right now. Ekkies are very diet-sensitive, but for many years and several generations they had to suffer through all seed diets. People actually thought their natural lifespan to be somewhere in the region of 16 to 20 years! We know better now, but it will be some time before we have enough data to state definitively what an ekkie captive lifespan might look like when they are fed tree right foods. All indications are that 60 -70+ may well be the natural norm, though.

Long story short, without even a good baseline on what an average lifespan would be for either male or female ekkies, we would only now be able to start our observations to prove/disprove your theory. Definitely a hypothesis worth investigating, however.