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Tag Archives: Parrot
Unraveling the mystery of parrot longevity
Parrots are famous for their remarkable cognitive abilities and exceptionally long lifespans. Now, a study led by Max Planck researchers has shown that one of these traits has likely been caused by the other. By examining 217 parrot species, the researchers revealed that species such as the scarlet macaw and sulfur-crested cockatoo have extremely long average lifespans, of up to 30 years, which are usually seen only in large birds. Further, they demonstrated a possible cause for these long lifespans: large relative brain size. The study is the first to show a link between brain size and lifespan in parrots, suggesting that increased cognitive ability may have helped parrots to navigate threats in their environment and to enjoy longer lives.
Despite the fact that parrots are well known for their long lives and complex cognition, with lifespans and relative brain size on par with primates, it remains unknown whether the two traits have influenced each other.
“The problem has been sourcing good quality data,” says Simeon Smeele, a doctoral student at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB) and lead author on the study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Understanding what has driven parrot longevity is only possible by comparing living parrots. “Comparative life-history studies require large sample sizes to provide certainty, because many processes are a play at once and this creates a lot of variation,” says Smeele.
To generate an adequate sample size, scientists from the MPI-AB and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EvA) teamed up with Species360, which draws on animal records from zoos and aquaria. Together, they compiled data from over 130,000 individual parrots sourced from over 1,000 zoos. This database allowed the team to gain the first reliable estimates of average life span of 217 parrot species—representing over half of all known species.
The analysis revealed an astonishing diversity in life expectancy, ranging from an average of two years for the fig parrot up to an average of 30 years for the scarlet macaw. Other long-lived species include the sulfur-crested cockatoo from Australia, which lives on average 25 years.
“Living an average of 30 years is extremely rare in birds of this size,” says Smeele who worked closely with Lucy Aplin from MPI-AB and Mary Brooke McElreath from MPI-EvA on the study. “Some individuals have a maximum lifespan of over 80 years, which is a respectable age even for humans. These values are really spectacular if you consider that a human male weights about 100 times more.”
Next, the team employed a large-scale comparative analysis to determine whether or not parrots’ renowned cognitive abilities had any influence on their longevity. They examined two hypotheses: First, that having relatively larger brains enable longer lifespans. In other words, smarter birds can better solve problems in the wild, thus enjoying longer lives. Second, that relatively larger brains take longer to grow, and therefore require longer lifespans. For each species, they collected data on relative brain size, as well as average body weight and developmental variables.
They then combined the data and ran models for each hypothesis, looking at which model best explained the data. Their results provide the first support that increased brain size has enabled longer lifespans in parrots. Because brain size relative to body size can be an indicator for intelligence, the findings suggest that the parrots with relatively large brains had cognitive capabilities that allowed them to solve problems in the wild that could otherwise kill them, and this intelligence enabled them to live longer lives.
“This supports the idea that in general larger brains make species more flexible and allow them to live longer,” says Smeele. “For example, if they run out of their favorite food, they could learn to find something new and thus survive.”
The scientists are surprised that factors such as diet, or the greater developmental time required to develop larger brains, did not lead to longer average lifespans. “We would have expected the developmental path to play a more important role because in primates it is this developmental cost that explains the link between brain size and longevity,” says Smeele.
In the future, the team plans to explore whether sociality and cultural learning in parrots might have also contributed to long lifespans. Says Smeele, “Large-brained birds might spend more time socially learning foraging techniques that have been around for multiple generations. This increased learning period could potentially also explain the longer life spans, as it takes more time but also makes the foraging repertoire more adaptive.”
“One thing that makes us humans special is the vast body of socially learned skills. We are really excited to see if long-lived parrots also have a ‘childhood’ in which they have to learn everything from finding and opening nuts to avoid upsetting the dominant male. Ultimately, we would like to understand which evolutionary drivers create a species with a life history very similar to our ancestors.”
African grey parrots may have better self-control than macaws
More information:
Simeon Q. Smeele et al, Coevolution of relative brain size and life expectancy in parrots, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2397
Simeon Q. Smeele et al, Coevolution of relative brain size and life expectancy in parrots, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2397
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A New Zealand parrot stole a GoPro and filmed its getaway
(CNN) — A New Zealand family got an unexpected bird’s eye view of a trail they had just hiked in Fiordland National Park, South Island, after a mischievous parrot stole their GoPro and took flight.
The Verheul family, from Dunedin in the southeast of the country, had just finished exploring part of the Kepler Track when a kea — a native New Zealand species — grabbed their GoPro and flew off over woodland.
They had turned on the device to film a group of the curious birds, who had joined them outside of the hut they were staying at, Alex Verheul said in interview with broadcaster Seven Sharp on Thursday.
But one cheeky kea took flight with it, capturing aerial footage of the landscape before settling on some ground and tapping at the gadget repeatedly with its beak.
At one point, the bird can be seen ripping off a chunk of plastic from the camera casing.
Remarkably, the GoPro survived its ordeal — a family member heard the clamor and ran in the direction of the squawking to recover it.
Handily, Verheul told Seven Sharp, the bird had flown in a straight line, so they were able to track it down.
“We just followed the sound, went down there, could see them hanging out in the tree. They’d obviously heard us coming and abandoned the GoPro — and my son, he decided to go check the rocks… and there it was, just sitting there, still filming.”
“I downloaded (the footage) onto my phone… It was amazing. It was totally unexpected.”
The next day, she added, a kea stole a cup from a backpack, too.
CNN has reached out to Verheul for further comment.
Heidi Fleiss vows to leave Nevada after parrot shot: Report
Infamous Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss has vowed to leave her Nevada home after someone shot one of her parrots, according to a report.
Fleiss, known for the prostitution ring she once ran in Los Angeles, claims someone injured one of her macaws with a shot from a pellet gun right before Christmas, and she is now offering $5,000 for information helping arrest the culprit.
The former madam, who counted Charlie Sheen as a client and once served 20 months in federal prison for tax evasion, has lived in Pahrump, about an hour west of Las Vegas, for 15 years.
The bird, named Chuey, is five years old, Fleiss told the Pahrump Valley Times, adding she kept the pellet a vet removed from her bird’s leg as evidence.
“Everyone knows they’re my birds and they really enjoy them,” Fleiss told the outlet. “When [the bird] came home in the late afternoon, she fell and that’s when I noticed there was something wrong with her leg.”
She vowed revenge on the fowl fiend who injured her pet.
“I want to castrate him, I want them to get the death penalty for shooting my little Chuey, who was just flying around doing nothing — and they shoot her,” she told the paper. “I want them to have the death penalty because everyone in the subdivision knows her and they love her.”
So now she’s flocking to Missouri, where Fleiss, 56, bought a 50-acre forest for herself and her feathered friends.
“My birds will be out of here by the end of February. I think the best moments of my life have been here with my birds, watching them fly and explore and seeing them have freedom from years of sitting in cages,” she said. “It’s really been an incredible experience and I’ve had some of the best times of my life here — but unfortunately, the worst.”
Canadian pastor defiant as judge orders him to parrot ‘medical experts’ from pulpit: ‘I will not obey’
EXCLUSIVE: The Polish-Canadian pastor who has been jailed for holding church services in Calgary, Alberta, said he will refuse to obey a court order mandating him to publicly echo the established opinions of medical experts regarding COVID-19.
Pastor Artur Pawlowski was sanctioned by Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Adam Germain to 18 months of probation, according to a written ruling released Friday.
The ruling is the latest development in Alberta’s ongoing legal battle against Pawlowski, who faced a civil contempt charge for holding church services in violation of a court order forbidding organizing, promoting or attending an “illegal public gathering.”
He faced another contempt charge for repeatedly ejecting armed officials attempting to inspect his sanctuary for COVID-19 compliance, for which he first drew international attention.
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In addition to tens of thousands of dollars in costs and fines, one condition of Pawlowski’s probation requires him to parrot “the majority of medical experts in Alberta” regarding social distancing, mask wearing and vaccines, even when he speaks in church.
“The final term of his probation order will be that when he is exercising his right of free speech and speaking against [Alberta Health Services] Health Orders and AHS health recommendations, in a public gathering or public forum (including electronic social media), he must indicate in his communications the following,” wrote Germain, who appended a script:
“I am also aware that the views I am expressing to you on this occasion may not be views held by the majority of medical experts in Alberta. While I may disagree with them, I am obliged to inform you that the majority of medical experts favour social distancing, mask wearing, and avoiding large crowds to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Most medical experts also support participation in a vaccination program unless for a valid religious or medical reason you cannot be vaccinated. Vaccinations have been shown statistically to save lives and to reduce the severity of COVID-19 symptoms.”
‘Compelled speech’
Pawlowski told Fox News he has no intention of complying with Germain’s sanction, which he condemned as “unconstitutional,” “illegal,” and a clear instance of “compelled speech like in China and North Korea.”
“This crooked judge wants to turn me into a CBC reporter or CNN reporter, that every time that I am in public, every time I’m opening my mouth, I am to pray their mantra to the government,” he said.
Pawlowski said the judge’s condition is “without precedent” in Canada, an assertion echoed by his lawyer, Sarah Miller, who described Germain’s sanction as “bizarre” and “likely unconstitutional” under Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees freedom of expression.
“This is totally and wholly new as far as sentencing goes, as far as I can see or as far as I am familiar with,” Miller told Fox News. “I’ve never heard of any kind of probationary period which includes conditions that compelled certain speech. It seems highly unusual and rare.”
Miller said it remains unclear how and to what extent Pawlowski’s speech will be monitored for compliance, but noted there appears to be no caveat protecting what he says from the pulpit.
“They’re telling me what I can and cannot preach,” Pawlowski said. “They’re telling me that every time I want to address the public, I have to spew their lie first in order for me to deliver my message. That’s China. That’s North Korea.”
‘Show courts’
Germain, a former politician with the Alberta Liberal Party, also issued an extensive and personal rebuke to Pawlowski in which he speculated that the pastor wants to be punished.
Prosecutors for Alberta Health Services (AHS) were seeking 21 days in jail for Pawlowski, but Germain said he decided against such a sentence because “it would be a slap on the wrist that will make him a martyr.”
Germain also said Pawlowski “taunted me to imprison him” with his statement before the court in September, when he claimed to be “a political prisoner of conscience” and denounced Canadian politicians as “liars, hypocrites and cheaters.”
Pawlowski told Germain that if he intended to imprison him as AHS was demanding, he should also imprison Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, who apologized in June after being caught violating his own health regulations 24 different ways during one private dinner with members of his cabinet.
Germain singled out Pawlowski’s denunciation of Kenney, claiming he viewed it as evidence of the pastor’s “fervent desire that I martyr him by giving him a little more jail time to add a little more gasoline to the anti-mask, anti-vaccination fire.”
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Germain took particular umbrage at Pawlowski’s speaking tour throughout the United States over the summer, during which he met with lawmakers and warned audiences that Western governments increasingly resemble the communist regime in Poland he fled as a young man.
Footage from the trip, the justice claimed, was evidence that “Pastor Pawlowski oozes hubris, while relishing in his notoriety.”
Pawlowski, whose probation also forbids him from leaving the province, suggested to Fox News that Germain’s attitude and sanctions prove the point he was trying to make throughout his U.S. tour.
“When I grew up under the boots of the Soviets, the courts like this were called ‘show courts,'” he said. “It was to show that the government can do with you whatever they want, and there is nothing you can do about it. And it’s just to scare the public, telling you, ‘See, we can finish off anyone we want.’ They’re terrified of the truth.”
“I’m not hiding. I’m not a criminal. I said I will not obey this court order. I refuse to obey a crooked judge’s order. He’s not a judge, he’s a political activist,” he added.
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The Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment in time for publication.
Since the pandemic, other churches throughout Canada have faced imprisoned pastors, locked facilities, steep fines and continued interference from government officials.
Parrot Hilariously Asks Alexa to Add Pulled Pork to Shopping List
A clever parrot has worked out how to chat to Alexa, using the electronic assistant to add items to the shopping list and control the lights.
The African grey Congo parrot, named Max, has a wide vocabulary, which includes being able to command the Amazon gadget.
The parrot’s owner has been sharing the bird’s hilarious conversations to their TikTok and Instagram accounts, @maxtheafricangrey2000, posting under the name Max Franklin.
One clip, shared last week, has racked up a whopping 7.5 million views alone, and shows the parrot—in a distinctly human-sounding voice—saying “Alexa.” In the background, the distinctive sound of the assistant being activated can be heard.
The 21-year-old parrot then proceeds to add some food to the weekly shop, as Max goes “add pulled pork.” In comical scenes, the device then replies to the bird, saying: “You already have pulled pork on your shopping list.”
This likely explains where Max originally picked up the phrase, after hearing their owner, thought to live in Buffalo, New York, popping it on the grocery list. The video subtitles for the brilliant exchange simply say: “Alexa add pulled pork to my shopping list hahahaha.”
But it’s not just food Max asks Alexa about, as the bird cleverly uses the gadget to turn lights on. Another clip captures the bird, which has a lifespan of roughly 60 years according to World Animal Protection, requesting a change in the lightning, as the bulb flicks on above their cage.
While separate clips reveal Max has also figured out how to use Alexa to turn on the radio, showing the bird requesting songs, including rap music, sometimes in the early hours.
“Telling Alexa to play 97 Rock and calling my dog brothers to listen,” the owner captions another video, as Alexa replies to Max, saying: “Here’s a station you might like, classic rock, from Amazon music.”
Grey parrots have been known to learn around 100 words, demonstrated by one of the most famous of the species, Alex, who passed away in 2007, according to The New York Times.
As well as words, perceptive Max was also caught on camera mimicking coughing, after its owner caught a cold. “My human has a cold and I think I do too! ” they captioned the clip.
Numerous people have commented on Max’s skills and vocabulary in the viral video, with Nicholette_odenbach asking: “Are you kidding me.”
Joanmarie723 thought: “Wow he is good at mimicking.”
“He knew what he was doing,” Mo reckoned.
Casey Nelson thought: “Devious little bird”
And It’s Me Valerie 2020 added: “That is amazing. Animals are highly intelligent.”
Newsweek reached out to Max Franklin for comment.
Michelle Mahlke-Sloniecki/Getty Images
Bruce Is a Parrot With a Broken Beak. So He Invented a Tool.
Many animals are known to use tools, but a bird named Bruce may be one of the most ingenious nonhuman tool inventors of all: He is a disabled parrot who has designed and uses his own prosthetic beak.
Bruce is a kea, a species of parrot found only in New Zealand. He is about 9 years old, and when wildlife researchers found him as a baby, he was missing his upper beak, probably because it had been caught in a trap made for rats and other invasive mammals the country was trying to eliminate. This is a severe disability, as kea use their dramatically long and curved upper beaks for preening their feathers to get rid of parasites and to remove dirt and grime.
But Bruce found a solution: He has taught himself to pick up pebbles of just the right size, hold them between his tongue and his lower beak, and comb through his plumage with the tip of the stone. Other animals use tools, but Bruce’s invention of his own prosthetic is unique.
Researchers published their findings Friday in the journal Scientific Reports. Studies of animal behavior are tricky — the researchers have to make careful, objective observations and always be wary of bias caused by anthropomorphizing, or erroneously attributing human characteristics to animals.
“The main criticism we received before publication was, ‘Well, this activity with the pebbles may have been just accidental — you saw him when coincidentally he had a pebble in his mouth,’” said Amalia P.M. Bastos, an animal cognition researcher at the University of Auckland and the study’s lead author. “But no. This was repeated many times. He drops the pebble, he goes and picks it up. He wants that pebble. If he’s not preening, he doesn’t pick up a pebble for anything else.”
Dorothy M. Fragaszy, an emerita professor of psychology at the University of Georgia who has published widely on animal behavior but was unacquainted with Bruce’s exploits, praised the study as a model of how to study tool use in animals.
“The careful analyses of the behavior in this report allow strong conclusions that the behavior is flexible, deliberate and an independent discovery by this individual,” she said.
The researchers set themselves careful rules.
First, they established that Bruce was not randomly playing with pebbles: When he picked up a pebble, he used it for preening nine times out of 10. When he dropped a pebble, 95 percent of the time he either retrieved it or picked up another one and then continued preening. He consistently picked up pebbles of the same size, rather than sampling pebbles at random.
None of the other kea in his environment used pebbles for preening, and when other birds did manipulate stones, they picked pebbles of random sizes. Bruce’s intentions were clear.
“Bruce didn’t see anyone do this,” Ms. Bastos said. “He just came up with it by himself, which is pretty cool. We were lucky enough to observe this. We can learn a lot if we pay a little more attention to what animals are doing, both in the wild and in captivity.”
Kea in general are quite intelligent, but Ms. Bastos said that Bruce was clearly brighter than other birds, very easily trained in fairly complex tasks in addition to developing his own ideas. Ms. Bastos said she was sometimes asked why she didn’t provide Bruce with a prosthetic beak.
“He doesn’t need one,” she always responds. “He’s fine with his own.”