Bruce (kea)

Bruce was born in the wild in 2012 or 2013.^[1] As the result of an injury he received as a fledgling, Bruce lacks the upper mandible of his beak.^[2] He was found in 2013 at Arthur's Pass^[3] and was placed in captivity at Willowbank Wildlife Reserve.^[4]

His beak injury has inhibited his ability to perform tasks like eating and preening.^[1] Although he primarily eats soft foods, he has also learned to eat hard foods by pushing them against rocks or pieces of metal and then scraping the food with his lower bill. According to keepers, this strategy has not been observed in the other kea.^[3]

At Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, Bruce is the most dominant kea. He is "aloof" and occasionally breaks up fights between the other male kea.^[2] According to research published in 2026, Bruce displays the lowest stress hormones within the kea collective.^[4]

A 2021 study examined Bruce's use of a pebble to assist in preening,^[1] a behavior first observed in 2019.^[3] Bruce would choose pebbles, wedge them between his lower mandible and tongue, and then preen himself. Researchers concluded that this qualified as innovative tool use, based on five lines of evidence:^[1]

• "In over 90% of instances where Bruce picked up a pebble, he then used it to preen
• In 95% of instances where Bruce dropped a pebble, he retrieved this pebble, or replaced it, in order to resume preening
• Bruce selected pebbles of a specific size for preening rather than randomly sampling available pebbles in his environment
• No other kea in his environment used pebbles for preening
• When other individuals did interact with stones, they used stones of different sizes to those Bruce preened with."

At the time of publication, tool use was not considered a species-specific behavior in keas.^[1] Bruce behavior also served as an example of self-care tool use in parrots, which researchers stated was "not rigorously reported in [wider] literature".^[1]

A 2026 study found that Bruce used his injured beak to obtain alpha status within his social group, by using his sharp lower mandible to joust and stab competitors. Unlike the other kea observed, who primarily used biting attacks, Bruce's stabbing/jousting attacks could be performed more quickly. Both Bruce and the other observed keas used kicking at about the same rates. According to the researchers, the findings "provide the first example of a disabled animal of any species individually achieving and maintaining alpha male status through behavioural innovation alone".^[4]