Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!umd5!uvaarpa!mcnc!decvax!decwrl!larrabee
From: larrabee@decwrl.dec.com (Tracy Larrabee)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Parrot's intelligent
Message-ID: <308@bacchus.DEC.COM>
Date: 2 Mar 88 19:12:20 GMT
References: <1988Feb25.145536.3854@utzoo.uucp> <4369@aw.sei.cmu.edu> <495@picuxa.UUCP>
Reply-To: larrabee@decwrl.UUCP (Tracy Larrabee)
Organization: DEC Western Research Lab, Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 29
Keywords: parrots

In article <495@picuxa.UUCP> gp@picuxa.UUCP (Greg Pasquariello X1190) writes:
>Is this for real?  Can it be that parrots can not only speak like humans
>but ALSO _UNDERSTAND_ WHAT THEY ARE SAYING!!!  Maybe we can send a parrot
>to the moon, not as a test animal, but as an astronaut!  Hell, maybe he can
>run for President!!

Would you like to send Koko the Gorilla to the moon?  How about the
African Gray at Purdue who has a 100 word vocabulary--that is, he says and
understands at least 100 different words.  He can communicate using the
concepts of the names of 4 different colors, the first 5 integers, and
negation.  He can ask that things be done to him or for him or that they
not be done.  His researchers were espescially surprised when he "learned"
the concept of negation by himself.  Prior to that they had believed that
they could not teach him negation because it was thought to be too
sophisticated a lingustic concept.

The bird has been on TV and written up in magazines and newspapers.

He has also plucked all the feathers off his body that he can reach.


As an addendum, perhaps you don't think that linguistic ability alone
signifies intelligence. John Lilly and company seem to believe that if
they could prove that dolphins could communicate using language they would
have proven that dolphins are sapient beings.  Yes, intelligence is a
multi-faceted thing, but parrots, gorillas, and dolphins are demonstrably
more advanced with respect to this multi-faceted thing than the other
animals that most of us have dealings with.

Not to mention their laudable lack of sarcastic comments.