It’s a new Curiosity Aroused, and in this episode, Skepchick Stacey gives an overview of the science on avian cognition, focusing mostly on the work of Dr. Irene Pepperberg and her African Grey parrot, Alex.
You can listen at curiosityaroused.com (where you can also see show notes), viaRSS, or on iTunes in the culture section. If you are on iTunes, please rate and comment!
One word –
MUNKEEES!
Next up on Curiosity Aroused: Monkeys. Are they evil? Do they live in your closet? And what is the definition of ‘beakflip’.
I wish I’d known about this ahead of time. I probably could’ve gotten you in touch with Dr. Pepperberg.
Steve – I could always do a follow up interview episode…
My avatar is a picture of my parrot. She’s dumb as toast. Love her anyway. Keep your monkey away from her beak.
@SkepLit: That’s what they WANT you to think. Mine has nonetheless managed to subtley train me to a much greater degree than I’ve been able to train him.
@Jo:
A “bird training” video described the problem thusly: “Between work, family, friends, entertainment and eating, you have about two hours you can spend concentrating on your bird. Your bird, on the other hand, has about 12 hours with nothing else to do but think of ways to manipulating your behavior to its benefit”.
But, everyone knows that no matter how smart the bird is, they will, ulimately, get their feathers kicked by the next spider monkey that rolls around.
Good show again! I think a nice skeptic tie in here would be to mention N’Kisi, the same type of bird as Alex, that Rupert “morphogenic fields” Sheldrake touts as having telepathic powers. *roll eyes* The contrast between how Dr. Pepperberg does REAL science and how Sheldrake does his pseudosciency woo dance is striking.
@Stacey: If you do, let me know. I know someone who corresponds with Dr. Pepperberg. Maybe she can get you an interview.
@Magnus H.: I second this proposal. While Dr. Pepperberg has occasionally been taken to task for not following rigorous scientific protocols I still think contrasting university research against wooniversity research would be a good way of promoting science and reason.
@Jo, @SkepLit: Think of “parrot” as the bird equivalent of “primate”. Some of them are dumb as rocks (e.g. a cockatiel I used to have). Others are quite clever (Kea parrots, for example).
Here’s my Grey (Dorian):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceybaker/3692935206/in/set-72157621067566290/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceybaker/3692132089/in/set-72157621067566290/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceybaker/3696528942/in/set-72157621067566290/
Birds became lame when they stopped being dinosaurs. What happened to you, birds? You used to be cool! Except the rook and its close relatives. They kick ass but would still get their asses handed to them by any monkey worth its opposable thumbs.
I disagree with the above poster. In fact, I would go so far as to say that birds are scary, period. They’re always looking at you with just one eye, and then moving their head really, really fast as if to say “hey, human. I have way faster reflexes than you. If I wanted to eat your eyeball, I could do that right now.” I have perfect 20-20 vision but I still wear glasses for this exact reason.
@Rei Malebario: Cladistically speaking, birds never stopped being dinosaurs. They still belong to the line of theropoda.
I submit that, having survived the apocolypse that wiped out all other dinosaurs, birds have shown that they are the baddest assed mo fo’s of the past 60 million years.
Eat that monkey lovers!
SCARY smart. Some species of the family Corvidae show remarkable ability to learn. Not only that, but they can learn by watching other birds.
I, for one, welcome our feathered overlords.
It never occurred to me that parrots have opposable claws. Shit.
Please stop calling me “cracker” now. Polly will hear you :(