ctwittwer@msscc.med.utah.edu (05/02/91)
Why is it that parrots (and the like) can and do imitate sounds like human speach so well? I mean, what's the advantage of this ability in the wild? Do they imitate lions and stuff to scare off enemies?
rdmiller@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Ruth D Miller) (05/03/91)
I have begun reading Joseph Forshung's _Parrots of the World_, and he suggests that parrots need to learn the "local dialect" of their species in their particular valley. Unlike mockinbirds, catbirds and starlings, whose documented mimicing of other bird species seems to be related to claiming territory, Forschung says there is no evidence that parrots in the wild mimic other birds. Perhaps like humans, whose intelligence means they have to _learn_ to speak with their kind, the mimicking parrots do not have programmed "language"? Just a thought... Ruth ps: I may have misspelled Forschung?
wvenable@spam.ua.oz.au (Bill Venables) (05/03/91)
In article <1991May1.165028.1@msscc.med.utah.edu> ctwittwer@msscc.med.utah.edu writes: > Why is it that parrots (and the like) can and do imitate sounds like human > speech so well? I mean, what's the advantage of this ability in the wild? > Do they imitate lions and stuff to scare off enemies? Here in Australia most parrots are gregarious and nomadic, often travelling about in huge flocks. For example budgerigar flocks can often occupy literally every available spot on a large dead tree, and I have seen a flock of cockatiels at a railway line grain spill near Moree in western New South Wales that I estimate to have been at least 3000 birds. Some, like the rare swift parrot, have a regular migratory pattern, but most appear to wander almost at random. Most of the time they chatter and screech away to each other, and I can only surmise that this loquaciousness has a cohesive effect on the flock and makes it easy for juvenile birds not to stray. From my experience in the wild they are not mimics, although they do have a wide variety of calls. For example the Eastern Rosella has about 25 recorded distinct calls it uses on different occasions. -- BTW this nomadic and gregarious behaviour of parrots and cockatoos makes me wonder just how humane it really is to keep them in the artificial permanent territory of a cage, and either singly or in pairs. Just a thought. -- Bill Venables, Dept. of Statistics, | Email: venables@spam.adelaide.edu.au Univ. of Adelaide, South Australia. | Phone: +61 8 228 5412