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| -Short Attention Span Theater- | |
| Parrot's oratory stuns scientists | |
| 2006-12-27 | |
| This reminds me of the classic ethnography study of the Hans(?) the counting horse. The horse could apparently count and do simple math, and tapped out the answer with it's hoove. In fact, it was picking up cues inadvertently provided by it's owner. I know from personal experience that parrots have an astonishing ability to imitate, but I'm sceptical of the claimed cognitive abilities. The 'telepathy' indicates to me they provided cues that the parrot can detect, but the humans are unaware of. The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate with people has brought scientists up short. The bird, a captive African grey called N'kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humour. He invents his own words and phrases if he is confronted with novel ideas with which his existing repertoire cannot cope - just as a human child would do. N'kisi's remarkable abilities, which are said to include telepathy, feature in the latest BBC Wildlife Magazine. N'kisi is believed to be one of the most advanced users of human language in the animal world. About 100 words are needed for half of all reading in English, so if N'kisi could read he would be able to cope with a wide range of material.
When he first met Dr Jane Goodall, the renowned chimpanzee expert, after seeing her in a picture with apes, N'kisi said: "Got a chimp?" Dr Goodall says N'kisi's verbal fireworks are an "outstanding example of interspecies communication". He appears to fancy himself as a humourist. When another parrot hung upside down from its perch, he commented: "You got to put this bird on the camera." In an experiment, the bird and his owner were put in separate rooms and filmed as the artist opened random envelopes containing picture cards. Analysis showed the parrot had used appropriate keywords three times more often than would be likely by chance. This was despite the researchers discounting responses like "What ya doing on the phone?" when N'kisi saw a card of a man with a telephone, and "Can I give you a hug?" with one of a couple embracing. Professor Donald Broom, of the University of Cambridge's School of Veterinary Medicine, said: "The more we look at the cognitive abilities of animals, the more advanced they appear, and the biggest leap of all has been with parrots." Alison Hales, of the World Parrot Trust, told BBC News Online: "N'kisi's amazing vocabulary and sense of humour should make everyone who has a pet parrot consider whether they are meeting its needs. "They may not be able to ask directly, but parrots are long-lived, and a bit of research now could mean an improved quality of life for years." | |
| Posted by:phil_b |
| #15 I have a pig that speaks 4 languages. |
| Posted by: Bill the Pig Farmer 2006-12-27 16:41 |
| #14 Whatever you do keep the parrots away from Joe M! (No offense to Joe...) |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2006-12-27 20:20 |
| #13 The lower east side Mendiolas? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2006-12-27 18:10 |
| #12 I once read a story about this guy who had accumulated a collection of around 20 trained parrots. Since each had come from different owners, they all had memorized independent phrase groups. Nonetheless, this did not prevent them from being able to trigger one another. According to this report, the parrots could sometimes chain react amongst each other and produce fifteen to twenty minute passages of dialogue, some of it quite hilarious. Obviously, there was a certain degree of overlap in their vocabularies that permitted cross-connection. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-12-27 16:59 |
| #11 Lol, you should take all of the above as a "No", Eric Jablow. ;-) LOL funny thread.. N'kisi = "outstanding example of interspecies communication" Parrot's oratory stuns stupid scientists. ima still trying to with wimmins... |
| Posted by: RD 2006-12-27 14:37 |
| #10 Lol, you should take all of the above as a "No", Eric Jablow. ;-) |
| Posted by: .com 2006-12-27 14:25 |
| #9 I remembers Churchill's parrot well. He was a long lived avian and smart as hell, memorized many of the PMs speechs and could recite on demand 3 of them. He famously shat in Lady Astors tea one funny afternoon at Hatfield, or was it Bleaky Park? Hard to say, it was a long time ago, parrots were smarter then. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2006-12-27 14:16 |
| #8 About 100 words are needed for half of all reading in English Probably a typo, s/100/1000/, unless of course they're referring to People Magazine or the comments on Kos. |
| Posted by: KBK 2006-12-27 13:41 |
| #7 I heard an African Grey on the radio a few years back, called Jadak. He lived with some musicians in Denmark, and sang while they played a tango. The bird had serious musical chops. He would take a solo, then let the guitars play a verse, then come in right on the beat. Finished off with a very Satch-like "Aaahhh!" |
| Posted by: Grunter 2006-12-27 13:17 |
| #6 When the owner looks at a picture of an asshole, does the parrot say 'Olmert' ? |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-12-27 12:40 |
| #5 I think we should begin to worry if it starts praying 5 times a day. |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2006-12-27 10:51 |
| #4 he'll be pining for the fjords soon enough |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-12-27 10:24 |
| #3 Does anyone remember the story of Churchill's parrot? |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2006-12-27 09:04 |
| #2 describe the aromatherapy oils used by his owner, an artist based in New York. Next! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2006-12-27 07:01 |
| #1 When the parrot gives some backtalk to his keepers and demands better compensation for his efforts, I'll believe he really has something to communicate. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2006-12-27 04:33 |