This is the new best bird ever.

guy07 · Post by **guy07** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:33 pm

I actually worked in a parrot refuge for a few months. Having worked with parrots, they are actually intelligent, no question about it. They even have personalties. Two or three of the five hundred were smart enough to hold up a short conversation. One even what i would say, HATED me. And only me. He was nice to everyone else, but when i went to talk to him he would charge at me and yell. He was also, strangely, one of the few that you could hold up a conversation with. More proof that smart people hate dumb people. lol :p

downwithpants · Post by **downwithpants** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 7:09 pm

o_O does that parrot understand grammar or does it just pick up a few key words in its vocabulary? is it able to learn new words through context or does it learn only through association/conditioning? (i know i could look it up, but im lazy).

my sister had a cockatiel that could learn whistles, but it just bit everyone and shat all over the place.

i'm scared of birds now.

JaddziaDax · Post by **JaddziaDax** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 9:37 pm

I like birds :3

godix · Post by **godix** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 9:39 pm

downwithpants wrote:my sister had a cockatiel that could learn whistles, but it just bit everyone and shat all over the place.

Sounds like some of my inlaws except they don't whistle.

inthesto · Post by **inthesto** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:55 pm

Speaking of how god damn smart crows can be, we watched a video in class about a crow that would hang around high-traffic intersections, throw a nut into the middle of the road, and let the cars do the nutcracking.

Good thing these guys don't have opposable thumbs.

guy07 · Post by **guy07** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 12:00 am

Yar. Most animals are smarter then we think they are. But recently i've been wondering ... I mean, humans evolved from apes, so what if something similar happens to other species? I'm being totally serious here. If evolution is something that in fact never ends until a species is extinct, then it's possible they could evolve to be something that we would consider to be more then a little intelligent.

godix · Post by **godix** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 5:00 am

guy07 wrote:Yar. Most animals are smarter then we think they are. But recently i've been wondering ... I mean, humans evolved from apes, so what if something similar happens to other species? I'm being totally serious here. If evolution is something that in fact never ends until a species is extinct, then it's possible they could evolve to be something that we would consider to be more then a little intelligent.

Oh dear god, next thing you know you're going to be commenting that dolphins seem pretty smart for an animal as if you were the first to ever notice that.

One of the theories on evolution holds that intelligence is a side effect of tool using. Other than apes tool users are pretty fucking rare so it's not very likely another species will involve intelligence in the next few millions years. And even if they started to, humans would just kill the fuckers off before they could be competition.

guy07 · Post by **guy07** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:14 am

...You've got a good point there. But still, it would be pretty cool if Parrots were almost on the same playing field as humans. Well, not for my because I'm terrified of them now (there was an accident while i was working there ...blood was involved.)
And it's not like we can tell if an species intelligence has gotten higher in the past few thousand years, we only stated paying attention to animals and studying them like 400 years ago.

NS · Post by NS » Tue Jul 01, 2008 11:57 am

guy07 wrote:...You've got a good point there. But still, it would be pretty cool if Parrots were almost on the same playing field as humans. Well, not for my because I'm terrified of them now (there was an accident while i was working there ...blood was involved.)
And it's not like we can tell if an species intelligence has gotten higher in the past few thousand years, we only stated paying attention to animals and studying them like 400 years ago.

This is stupid. Parrots don't KNOW what they are saying, they merely mimic the sounds they hear mindlessly. They don't ACTUALLY talk, they just make noises that mimic some speech or other sounds...

inthesto · Post by **inthesto** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 1:48 pm

God dammit, this topic just hit a downward spiral of stupid.