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

[millefleur]

You have a wonderful communication with your wife.
I did not at all mean that all such communications were either of the evil side or directly from God.

The human spirit is powerful on it's own right and would explain your deep bond of love and closeness.

That's why when I posted regarding that PARTICULAR parrot story only I tried to use a DISCLAIMERS: "one way such..could be explained" and "in this case".
I did not want to offend anyone.

[Darksheare]

LOL!
Congo Greys are pranksters.
Saw one pretend to die inside the cage just for attention.
He dropped to the bottom of the cage, flexed his beak, clutched with his feet, and finally lay still.
After a bit, he blinked and then looked around.
Then he looked surprised because he was caught.
*chuckle*
I asked teh closest caretaker if that bird always did that.
She laughed and said he does that to get attention, and to be taken out of the cage.

[redhead]

"My African Grey likes to squawk like my Quaker Parrot just so the Quaker will get in trouble for making to much noise. The Grey also yells at the cats when they start playing too rough. THis guy knows hundreds of words and, when he wants a treat, he asks for it by name. Give him something else and it gets dumped. When he is outside his cage, he has also learned how to unscrew the bolts holding it together. He has also learned how to open the food dish doors on the outside and make them look like they are shut so he can sneak out when we aren't looking. Several times I've come home from work to find the little guy on top of his cage with the door shut and secure and a slightly propped open food dish door. One day, I happened to catch him proping that dish door open. Very clever animal and definitely more intelligent than several people I know."

LOLOL! Sounds like my escape artist! I had to put "snaps" on the dish doors on his cage to keep him from taking himself for a walk. If we are out in the living room and he is out of the cage, he will come walking in to look for us.

[Fester Chugabrew]

Tell me what I'm thinking riiiiight now.

We would, but this forum has both morals and standards.

[StolarStorm]

No problem. I wasn't offended. Just trying to get in on the discussion. :)

[redhead]

"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."

I agree. I have two of them. The first one was AWFUL. The second one actually had a dog in it.

[commish]

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.

my Brother's african grey has mastered the beeper on the back of the garbage truck, and loves to turn the volume up on it.

They also have an umbrella cockatoo that has this annoying screech. Whenever he goes off, the Grey will yell at him in a vary annoyed tone "Shut up idiot or your gonna get sprayed again". Then after the invariable dousing the Grey says "don't look at me, I warned you!"

[Mr. Mojo]

"Shut up idiot or your gonna get sprayed again". Then after the invariable dousing the Grey says "don't look at me, I warned you!"

lol..... that's hilarious. I'll pass that story on.

[PatrickHenry]

Where's medved when you need him ...

If I bothered to teach a bird a few phrases, such as "irreducible complexity," "no evidence," "2nd law of thermodynamics," and "micro but not macro evolution," he'd be able to dazzle an auditorium full of creationists.

[PatrickHenry]

Related story: Churchill parrot soldiers on at ripe old age of 104.

[sharktrager]

I saw that on TV. It was on That's Incredible in the 80's.

[martin_fierro]

this forum has both morals and standards.

So do I. But...

1. ...apparently you view mine as different than yours; and
2. ...apparently you've annointed yourself spokesman for the forum.

[lawgirl]

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!

[Fester Chugabrew]

Oh no. A little bird told me what you were htinking.

[Old Professer]

Why should he? The article didn't.

[BSunday]

Paging Scully and Mulder...

[MississippiMan]

The second one actually had a dog in it.

LOL, yeah, that helped.

MM

[Old Professer]

Back about 1987, Consumer's Reports published a study on breakfast cereals including granolas and so-called Health Foods; they used different groups of rats and a control group that was fed a laboratory diet.

The only nutritionally sufficient cereal was Cheerios; some of the granolas had to be discontinued midway through because the rats were dying of malnutrition.

[VadeRetro]

"You looking at me?" , said the bird in an Al Pacino sort of voice.

Dumb bird should have used a DeNiro voice.

[millefleur]

sweetliberty, I thought you might enjoy this story from an Affenpinscher website about animal communication :

Now those last pups did another new thing with the ramp from the top of the packing crate. Two pups were sitting at the top of the ramp looking down, suddenly, they turned and stared at each other in what I call a telepathic look. When the stare broke they dashed down the ramp together and busily dug up a rock as large as their heads.

Each picked up one side of the rock and carefully they carried it up to the top of the ramp in a perfect concert of effort. Turning at the top took a little figuring then they faced the top of the ramp with the stone in their mouths. A sideways look at each other and they dropped the rock. Looking as wise as owls they sat and watched it roll down the ramp. One more meaningful glance at each other and the pups reverted to being playful dogs again.

I had the spooky feeling that some Newtonian law had been independently rediscovered and dismissed as kid stuff! Why with all the balls and toys in the yard did the pups dig up a big rock? How did they decide to dig it up and move it together? Why did they dig up a rock when there were so many loose ones available? What on earth did they learn form their experiment in rock rolling?

I'm sure I'll never know and no animal behaviorist will ever believe the observations I've made. But then, they seem to study wolves or beagles or something while I am watching Affenpinschers!