Parrot's oratory stuns scientists

Pretty incredible:

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 witha 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?"

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."

Posted by flow Frazao on January 26, 2004 at 04:03 PM | Permalink