Biologists have found which parrots best represent human speech. This was reported by the press service of the University of Pittsburgh.
Many parrot species can reproduce the sounds they hear, including phrases from human languages. It is known that this is only an external imitation, but the phenomenon itself is not fully understood. All parrots show a different ability to memorize words, depending on both the species and individual characteristics.
Christine Dahlin
Scientists ask, “What’s Polly Saying?” They tried to systematize this information based on a large database collected during its project. As part of this, the volunteers studied the behavior of their pet parrots and sent the results to zoologists for analysis and generalization. In total, it was possible to collect information on 900 individuals from 73 species.
It turns out that the parrot species really plays an important role. Jaco parrots have the best ability to reproduce and memorize sounds, remembering an average of 60 words. Cockatoos, amazons and macaws are in second place and have an average of 20-30 words. At the same time, age and gender have almost no effect on this ability, although birds are more likely to memorize words when they are young. Also, although parrots cannot speak literally, 89% of people reported that their pet used words in the right contexts and situations, meaning they saw the link between the situation and the event. sound.
Source: Gazeta
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