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Title: Parrot's oratory stuns scientists
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Published: Feb 18, 2007
Author: Grace Roselli.
Post Date: 2007-02-18 20:40:39 by tom007
Keywords: None
Views: 185
Comments: 10
Parrot's oratory stuns scientists By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent N'kisi on chairback Grace Roselli Feathered prodigy: N'kisi leads the field 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. N'kisi's remarkable abilities 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. Polished wordsmith 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?" N'kisi with picture card and teacher Grace Roselli School's in: He is a willing learner 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." All images courtesy and copyright of Grace Roselli.
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.
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#1. To: All, robin, diana, minerva, christine, zipporah, tommythemadartist, lodwick (#0)
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I had an African Grey before moving here. I thought it would be too impractical to bring him way out here so we found a new home for him. I got him as a young bird and fed him parrot baby food for a few months, raised him and let him fly free throughout the house, though he was good about staying on the perch on top of his cage most the time. He developed a vocabulary very quicky, often imitating things I'd say in my voice. He was very comical. It's been almost 8 years and I still miss that bird, I only had him for about a year and a half but I got really attached to him.
Yep Alaska and parrots do not sound like a good idea. Evidently there is good evidence that a species of small monkeys have definate vocal communication skills, one vocalization is "look up" the other is "lets get outta here". Can't remember much more.
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#8. To: tom007 (#1)
#9. To: Diana (#8)
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