Parrot's oratory stuns scientists

BBC News On Line ^ | 2004/01/26 | Alex Kirby

[aculeus]

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.

He uses words in context, with past, present and future tenses, and is often inventive.

One N'kisi-ism was "flied" for "flew", and another "pretty smell medicine" to describe the aromatherapy oils used by his owner, an artist based in New York.

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?"

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." Dr Goodall says N'kisi's verbal fireworks are an "outstanding example of interspecies communication".

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.

Captives' frustrations

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." © BBC MMIV

[aculeus]

The scientist who did that work (on dogs knowing when their owners are coming) is Rupert Sheldrake. He has a web site (but you knew that, right?).

http://www.sheldrake.org/index.html

[stands2reason]

Where do you go about getting "owned" by an African Grey?

[Miss Marple]

What an interesting thread!

My cats work as a team to wake me in the morning. Two are my daughter's cats who have recently come to live here, and one is the old cat we have had for years.

In the morning, when they think I am sleeping too late (6 AM) they come into the bedroom. The older cat will come onto the bed and pull my hair. The other two sit and watch as if egging him on.

I think animals do communicate. I wish I understood it more.

[stands2reason]

"Boy" will come in and wake me up with a massage. Nice when I'm on my stomach, but I'm usually on my side. He's a big-- time kneader. He's a bi†c#y pain-in the a$$ like his father,(they even have the same scratchy/squeaky meow), but he always comes when you call him, and he's a big kiss-up when he gets in trouble. His father "Badger" used to be a big ball player. He'd play fetch, but preferred "catch" catching the ball in his paws and carrying it back to us to toss again.... he left us after helping impregnate our newly adopted "Maia" (along with a big orange tom) -- she used to attack him mercilessly, so I really can't blame him.

[mindspy]

I didn't know that. Thank you, I'll check it out.

[TigersEye]

You ought to read this article and the thread. Some truly amazing stories here.

[FITZ]

They already made a movie along these lines:

http://www.movieclub.com/reviews/archives/98paulie/paulie.html

[Snagglepuss]

So the bird like squawks, "Stop wondering about my feather flyin sex life!". So, like then they knew that the bird was like telepathic dude.

[fish hawk]

When shown a picture of Howard Dean the said," He's the one that should be in a cage"!

[Don Joe]

http://www.budgieresearch.homestead.com/heavensgateintro.html

[Tall_Texan]

I have read quite a bit about the genius of the African Grey and I would love to have one if I had the time to keep it intellectually stimulated. But the thought of one of these feathered geniuses sitting home all day while I was gone is too sad. Maybe someday! Many of the larger parrots are thought to have the mental development of a 3-to-5-year-old human child. African Greys appear to be the most advanced. But there is a flip side. They are so intelligent that many wind up with destructive tendencies such as feather picking due to lack of stimulation. They also seem to go through a longer "childhood" being quite clumsy and fearful while very young. While great talkers, they often won't mimic any human words until they are a year old, frustrating owners who got them expecting them to speak right away. And most parrots love drama. That's why they pick up curse words so quickly. They are said emphatically, often with great emotion. The bird picks up on this and believes the words must be meaningful. Then when the bird shocks the owner with the swear words, the owners usually have a strong reaction (be it laughter, shock, whatever) which then reinforces to the bird that the word has an effect on people so it will use it even more often to amuse itself by saying the word and getting a reaction. I have a type of macaw which are not known to be great talkers but one benefit is I don't always have to watch what I say! :)

[Tall_Texan]

I read where one African Grey had to be removed from its home after it learned to mimic accurately, loudly and frequently, the sound of the dot matrix printer by the computer.

Parrots often want your attention so the mimicry of beeps and dings is part of the process. What do you do when the phone rings? You stop whatever you are doing and go to the phone to answer it. The bird thinks if it can ring like the phone, you'll come to the bird. What do you do when the microwave dings? You stop what you are doing and head right to the microwave. So the bird tries this noise too. There's a method to their madness.

I did hear of a Grey that was trained to ask visitors for their name. When a salesman came to call one day, the Grey asked him "What is your name?". The salesman ignored him. So the bird asked again, "What is your name?". Again, no response. A third time he asked but was ignored again. So the bird asked "What is your name, JERK?"

Our pet store has a Grey that does a dead-on smoker's hack, complete with neck jerks. Frequently, customers inform the sales clerks that they're worried the bird is sick. It's not - just putting on a show.

[B4Ranch]

Same story in our home.

[Fledermaus]

Yeah, and when they said it had the biggest English vocabulary of any animal. I guess they forgot we humans are animals too.

[Fledermaus]

That happens when you live with someone for a long time. Your brain anticipates.

My wife and I would say, almost at the same time, "lets go to X for dinner"...of course, we probably go there twice a month and it just comes up.

Usually on the same day.

Now, real telepathy is when she looks at me, reads my mind and says, "what did you just call me?" lol

[Aracelis]

Keep this parrot away from my pets. If he teaches them to talk I'll never get any rest.

[TruthNtegrity]

Bumping and bookmarking.

[Cacique]

bttfl

[weegee]

John John-John knows another word. It begins with "F".

[weegee]

Here is an account of something I caught on the news over 20 years ago:

Famous Guests at the Aquarium: Hoover (the talking seal)

The audio sample they offer is very poor compared to what I heard on the news but it does sound remarkably like Ted Kennedy (and yes this seal has a Boston accent).