African Grey Parrot

by Betty LaRue

Title

African Grey Parrot

Artist

Betty LaRue

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

A female African Gray parrot sits on a perch and preens her feathers. Black background, square format.
This is Echo, my pet bird. She is gentle, very intelligent, and loves to talk or mimic sounds. We have another grey, a male, and when they get going back and forth, it sounds like we have a flock of bluejays in the house. Bogie, the male, speaks so perfectly in my voice that he fools my husband.
The African Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus), also known as the Grey Parrot, is a medium-sized parrot found in the primary and secondary rainforest of West and Central Africa. Experts regard it as one of the most intelligent birds in the world. They feed primarily on palm nuts, seeds, fruits, and leafy matter, but have also been observed eating snails. Their overall gentle nature and their inclination and ability to mimic speech have made them popular pets, which has led many to be captured from the wild and sold into the pet trade. The African Grey Parrot is listed on CITES appendix II, which restricts trade of wild-caught species because wild populations cannot sustain trapping for the pet trade.
Like many large parrots, the African Grey is a long-lived bird. The Animal Ageing and Longevity Database states the longest reliably recorded longevity for the species in captivity as 49.7 years. Also acknowledged are claims of captive African Grey parrots reaching the ages of 73 and 93,] whereas the World Parrot Trust lists a longevity of 50�60 years for an African Grey in captivity. The Guinness Book of World Records listed a grey parrot that allegedly lived in captivity for 72 years as the longest-lived specimen for the species.
Unlike other parrots, wild African Greys have been documented imitating the calls of several other species.
Irene Pepperberg's research with captive African Greys, most notably with a bird named Alex, has scientifically demonstrated they possess the ability to associate simple human words with meanings, and to intelligently apply the abstract concepts of shape, colour, number, zero-sense, etc. According to Pepperberg and other ornithologists, they perform many cognitive tasks at the level of dolphins, chimpanzees, and even human toddlers.

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March 27th, 2013

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