The captive African grey parrot Alex is one of a number of parrots now believed to have the intelligence and emotional make-up of a 3 to 4 year old child. Under the tutelage of Professor Pepperherg, he acquired a vocabulary of over 100 words. He could say the words for colors and shapes and, apparently, use them meaningfully. He has learned the labels for more than 35 different objects; he knows when to use no, and phrases such as come here, I want X, and Wanna go Y.
A birds ability to understand, or speak, another birds language can be very valuable. New Zealand saddlebacks occupy the same territory for years. They have distinct song dialects passed on through the generations. New territory vacancies are hard to find, so young males are always on the look-out for new widows into whose territory they can move. While they wander around the forest, they learn the different dialect songs, just as we might learn a language or develop a regional dialect. As soon as a territory-owning male dies, a new young male may move in to take over within 10 minutes. He will immediately start singing the dialect of the territory he is in.
Possessing Abstract Concepts
Intelligence--if this is what scientists agree these birds possess--is not limited to the birds we always thought of as bright. In recent experiments at Cardiff University in Britain, a pigeon identified subtle differences between abstract designs that even art students did not notice. It could even tell that a Picasso was not the same as a Monet. The experiment seems to show that pigeons can hold concepts, or ideas, in their heads. The visual concept for the pigeon is Picassos painting style.
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