29 November 03

Blogging For Parrots?

Irene Pepperberg, the animal behaviorist who for twenty-five years has been studying the cognitive abilities of African gray parrots, and is famous for teaching her oldest bird, Alex, how to count as well as the rudiments of reading, has a twenty-month old bird named Arthur who may be getting on the Net soon. Parrots get easily bored and neurotic especially when left alone during day, so Pepperberg’s lab group at MIT came up with the idea of teaching the parrots to surf the web. They ask—“could live interaction with other parrots via the internet relieve stress and boredom caused by social isolation?”

Pica’s sister used to have an African gray parrot named Pavo, short for Pavarotti, who would hang upside down and say “I’m a bat”, and whenever it would snow, he would say “Brrr…it’s penguin weather.”

Posted by at 07:05 PM in Nature and Place | Link |
  1. I think parrots must be fascinating creatures to learn from and about. I just worry about their westernised lifestyle over canopy living. I mean, there must be a way of asking them which they prefer. Voting rights also should be looked into.

    — Coup de Vent    29. November 2003, 23:59    Link
  2. Not just voting rights, Coup: the right to run for office too.

    I can see the slogans now: “Why vote for Bush when you could have a REAL bird-brain?”

    — Chris Clarke    30. November 2003, 06:23    Link
  3. Actually, Pav wasn’t quite up to articles and verbs, at least not at the time. It was “Brrr…. penguin weather.” But ONLY when it was snowing.

    He was also adept at “bonjour” in a very creditable French accent, the ring of the telephone followed by “Hi Bill,” and the drip of the tap.

    — Pica    30. November 2003, 07:22    Link

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