Skip to content

SciTech

Aping parrots?

by Dave Armstrong 08 Aug 2012
Aping parrots?

The African grey is a parrot that is "near-endangered" in its home habitat - but perhaps the most intelligent of all pets? - African Grey Parrot Image; Credit: © Shutterstock

When a great ape is given a tin that rattles, a quick association is made between the noise and food within. No rattle, no food is their rapid conclusion.

While several animals now appear to almost equal the apes in intelligence, it is necessary to prove this conclusively. Monkeys and dogs are in the cue, but the highly-regarded African Grey parrot was an ideal test for this "mastermind" of intelligence tests. Christian Schloegl and his co authors presented this paper, Grey parrots use inferential reasoning based on acoustic cues alone, today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. They work in the famed Konrad Lorenz Research Station in Vienna and in several Austrian and German Universities.

We can reason as humans that animals are limited in their own reasoning. The classic situation is when animals are not shown which of a pair of containers is empty. In such an experiment many species can operate intelligently with a visual cue about the container that is empty. They simply conclude the other container is a correct choice as food container.

Only great apes can solve this container problem when rattling is used to indicate the presence of food. Dogs, and baboons and capuchin monkeys could not solve the rattling tin problem without training. Between 3 and 4 years of age, human children are first able to operate the cognitive ability and then achieve adult levels of performance. Non-human primates can visually perform in experiments but fail this acoustic association test.

Any animal that uses acoustic cues in everyday life would be expected to perform better, but the African Grey (Psittacus erithacus) is probably the ideal choice to infer an acoustic association. Convergent cognitive evolution in the mammals and birds is regarded here as equivalent to comparing two mammal groups (such as whales and primates.)

The African Grey parrot was ideal for this mastermind of intelligence experiment

The African Grey parrot was ideal for this 'mastermind' of intelligence experiment; Credit: © Arbeitsgemeinschaft Papageienschutz

One interesting part of this experiment found that vertical shaking seemed to coincide with the parrots' experience of their own head-bobbing repertoire of behaviours. Not surprisingly, they responded better to horizontal shaking!

The evidence throughout was convincing for the parrots to use the noise to detect hidden food. No other non-human animals apart from the great apes can perform at first trials so perfectly. There could be associative learning of a complicated rule here, but a causal understanding and learning processes seem more likely.

Many of the parrots were experimentally naive, yet highly experienced monkeys could not perform at their level. With better sensory orientation, the parrot may well have advantages, but monkeys are hardly unaware of sound as a perceptive instrument. Grey parrots have established inferring ability with experiments on vocal labelling and intriguing food hiding and pilfering tasks.

Perhaps they could give us the answer, or as in this case, simply repeat the old chestnut: the dead parrot sketch.

Grey parrot

Which this Grey parrot is not by the way!; Credit: © Shutterstock


Trending Eco-Friendly Clothing

Love My Planet Women's Relaxed Fit Hoodie
Earth
Quick Add
Close
Notify me
Notify me
Love My Planet Women's Relaxed Fit Hoodie
Love My Planet women's eco-friendly relaxed fit hoodieSize Guide Centimeters 8 10 12 14 16 18 Bust 84 88 92 97 103 108 Waist 66 70 75 80 85 91 Hips 91 95 99 104 109 116 Bust: Measure around the fullest part of...
£38.00
£38.00
Close
Notify me
Notify me
Penguins Hate Push-Ups Men's Pullover Hoodie
Earth
Quick Add
Close
Notify me
Notify me
Penguins Hate Push-Ups Men's Pullover Hoodie
Penguins Hate Push-Ups men's eco-friendly pullover HoodieSize Guide Centimeters XS S M L XL XXL Height 171 175 179 183 189 195 Chest 86 93 99 104 116 129 Waist 71 76 81 89 99 112 Chest: Measure all round your chest just below...
£38.00
£38.00
Close
Notify me
Notify me
Lightning Bolt Kids Long Sleeve T-Shirt
Earth
Quick Add
Close
Notify me
Notify me
Notify me
Lightning Bolt Kids Long Sleeve T-Shirt
Lightning Bolt kids eco-friendly long sleeve t-shirtSize Guide Centimeters 3-4yrs 5-6yrs 7-8yrs 9-10yrs 11-12yrs Height 98 112 125 136 147 Chest 60 66 70 75 84 Chest: Measure all around your chest just below your armpits. Height: Your natural height If you fall between...
£18.00
£18.00
Close
Notify me
Notify me
Notify me
Union Jack Tote Bag
Earth
Quick Add
Close
Notify me
Notify me
Union Jack Tote Bag
Union Jack eco-friendly colour tote bagProduct Specification Organic Cotton Tote Bag. Twill Weave (170gsm). 37 x 42 cm (7cm gusset.) Made in India / Designed on the Isle of Wight. Wash Cool, Hang Dry.
£16.00
£16.00
Close
Notify me
Notify me
Prev Post
Next Post

Eco-Friendly Shop

Women's Clothing

Eco-Friendly Clothing for Women Our online shop offers a wide range of sustainable women’s clothing products, including t-shirts, hoodies, vests, sweaters, shorts, and...
Shop Now

Men's Clothing

Eco-Friendly Clothing for Men Our online shop offers a wide range of sustainable men’s clothing products, including t-shirts, hoodies, vests, sweaters, shorts, and...
Shop Now

Kids Clothing

Eco-Friendly Clothes for Kids Our online shop offers a wide range of sustainable kids clothing products, including t-shirts, hoodies and jumpers. Our garments...
Shop Now
Someone recently bought a
[time] ago, from [location]

Thanks for subscribing!

This email has been registered!

Shop the look

Choose Options

Earth Times
Sign up for exclusive updates, new arrivals & insider only discounts

Recently Viewed

Edit Option
Back In Stock Notification
this is just a warning
Login
Shopping Cart
0 items

Before you leave...

Take 20% off your first order

20% off

Enter the code below at checkout to get 20% off your first order

CODESALE20

Continue Shopping