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Parrot's oratory stuns scientists
BBC News On Line ^
| 2004/01/26
| Alex Kirby
Posted on 01/26/2004 8:36:46 AM PST by aculeus
click here to read article
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To: aculeus
I met a parrot who could sing I Left My Heart in San Franciso. He could roller skate too, but I didn't get to see that.
41
posted on
01/26/2004 9:40:04 AM PST
by
Ditter
To: null and void; PeaceBeWithYou; Mo1; Budge; nicmarlo; Darksheare; Pippin
Amazing bird ping!
Yet another member of the animal world proves its ntelligence is superior to democRATs.
42
posted on
01/26/2004 9:41:35 AM PST
by
sweetliberty
("Better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.")
To: Jack Black
I've got a crow story for ya ... but it involves playing golf, also.
Crows at the North Alabama course we often played had grown accustomed to raiding food from golf carts that pick up snacks at the turn. When the golfers would step over to the tees or the greens, the crows would swoop in and lift a snack, packaging and all! One of my golfing buddies had a smart boxer dog he would bring along to the course, that sat dutifully in the cart throughout an entire round, except when led to the trees to potty. The crows made quick work of the 'guard dog' though ... one brave crow would swoop down at the dog from the side of the cart and draw the animal away from the cart while the others would clean out the snacks!
43
posted on
01/26/2004 9:42:55 AM PST
by
MHGinTN
(If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
To: tiamat
[ I bent down to look at him and he asked me "Whatcha doin'?".. So I said , "Looking at you! " ... "You looking at me?" , said the bird in an Al Pacino sort of voice. ]
Get out... ROTFWL
44
posted on
01/26/2004 9:48:12 AM PST
by
hosepipe
To: aculeus
This parrot's more than ready to replace Sean Hannity. Better looking, too.
45
posted on
01/26/2004 9:52:01 AM PST
by
Hank Rearden
(Dick Gephardt. Before he dicks you.)
To: millefleur
And it could be simply that many animals have highly tuned senses that we do not relate to and might mistakenly refer to as "telepathic." They do sometimes seem that way. I think the word itself may be being used too loosely. For example, a lot of animals react to changes in weather or an impending storm or earthquake well before their human counterparts. Some people would consider that ESP of a sort. Just because we may not understand something doesn't mean that it doesn't exist or that God has nothing to do with it.
46
posted on
01/26/2004 9:53:22 AM PST
by
sweetliberty
("Better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.")
To: millefleur
My wife and I can read each other's thoughts often... and I'm not talking about thoughts that would be obvious based on what was going on at the time. Out of the blew, She or I will answer a question that the other was thinking. We also tend to call each other at the same time (and these times are not consistent during the day), causing busy signals on both ends. Somehow, I don't think some kind of evil spirit is causing this...
To: hosepipe
No REALLY!
What is ROTFWL?
Tia
48
posted on
01/26/2004 9:56:35 AM PST
by
tiamat
("Just a Bronze-Age Gal, Trapped in a Techno World!")
To: sweetliberty
er, this thread's for the birds? LOL!
49
posted on
01/26/2004 9:56:43 AM PST
by
Pippin
(Fear the elephant!)
To: Brett66
"They should get his DNA and mix it with other genius birds" Hmmmm....now you're giving me ideas. If we take the DNA of an African Gray and mix it with the DNA of a democRAT, will we get a smarter democRAT or just a whining bird that votes multiple times?
50
posted on
01/26/2004 9:57:41 AM PST
by
sweetliberty
("Better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.")
To: Brett66
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!Great one!
51
posted on
01/26/2004 9:57:57 AM PST
by
freedomson
(Baruch Habba B'Shem Adonai)
To: sirshackleton
Kerry knows another word...begins with F.
52
posted on
01/26/2004 9:58:23 AM PST
by
xp38
To: StolarStorm
that happens here, too.
"You are not alone!"
/putting away the Agent Mulder Voice!/
Tia
53
posted on
01/26/2004 9:58:27 AM PST
by
tiamat
("Just a Bronze-Age Gal, Trapped in a Techno World!")
To: tiamat
rolling on the floor with laughter...
54
posted on
01/26/2004 10:01:10 AM PST
by
hosepipe
To: aculeus
a captive African grey called N'kisi Has he demanded his freedom and reparations for years of slavery?
55
posted on
01/26/2004 10:03:48 AM PST
by
Alouette
(I chose to NOT have an abortion -- 9 times.)
To: hosepipe
Oh! okay! /filing it away! /
Tia
56
posted on
01/26/2004 10:05:19 AM PST
by
tiamat
("Just a Bronze-Age Gal, Trapped in a Techno World!")
To: aculeus
Simply amazing. Reminds me of one of my favorite books of all time,
Watchers by Dean Koontz. Fabulous story. I wish someone would make a
good movie of it. At last count, I think there are three or four adaptations already out there, each of them terrible.
MM
To: aculeus
My post from an earlier parrot thread:
African Greys are amazing -- while most large parrots can learn to speak and have surprisingly large vocabularies, most talk with that stereotypical "parrot" voice. But African Greys are perfect mimics -- you'd swear they were feathered tape recorders. They can not only reproduce people's specific voices so well that they can fool the person's spouse, but they can do amazingly accurate renditions of almost any other sound as well, like dogs barking, cats meowing, door hinges sqeaking, phones ringing, videogame sounds, dog toy squeakers, power tools, knocking on doors (wood or metal), the distinctive sound of a squirt bottle... The list is endless.
Furthermore, as lab research subjects they have indicated clear ability to count, categorize by shape/color/material/arrangement, answer and ask specific questions, and so on: "THAT DAMN BIRD" A Talk with Dr. Irene Pepperberg.
LOL -- while looking up links for this post, I ran across a page with this anecdote about Alex, the original research subject:
A parrot after my own heart
Last Sunday, I spent a beautiful fall afternoon walking around Valley Forge National Historical Park with my seven-year-old son Mac and Dick Oehrle, whom I've known since we were undergraduates together.
Dick's daughter once worked as a research assistent for Irene Pepperberg at the University of Arizona. Dick relayed this story about the language skills of Alex the African Grey Parrot.
It seems that Cheerios cereal was a favorite treat among the parrots in the lab. At a certain point, someone went to a new local health food store, and brought back some healthy organic O-shaped whole-grain cereal. Alex tried a mouthful, spit it out, looked at the provider, and said, very distinctly:
"Wood."
Of course, what you're reading is my re-telling of Dick's re-telling of his daughter's story, which itself might have been second hand. But still.
To: aculeus
I have an African Grey parrot too, and he does some pretty amusing stuff -- makes the sound of liquid being poured into a glass when I merely walk
toward my mini-fridge that contains my beer. ......he says "good night" when he's tired and wants to be covered up (and put to sleep). ......he loves pizza, and when he sees me walk through the door with a box of it he enthusiastically says "pizza, pizza, pizza" (about 20 times). .....he sings for first few lines of "God Bless America" (although not always on key). ........the list of amusing things he does is a long one.
But then there are the annoying things -- mimicing the sounds of car alarms, microwave oven beeps, telephone and fax rings, the toaster squeaking on the countertop (although at a much higher decibel. .....an eardrum-busting noise). etc.
59
posted on
01/26/2004 10:16:04 AM PST
by
Mr. Mojo
To: aculeus
I am owned by an African Grey who is pretty verbose. He says things like, "Get in the water. Take a bath." He will chirp like his late friend, Sweetie, the cockatiel, and then say, "What, Sweetie-girl? Wanna come out?" Now, he watches me sort the mail, and says, "Catalog, catalog..."
60
posted on
01/26/2004 10:16:45 AM PST
by
redhead
(Know what to kiss, and when)
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