Color Me Grey WK4

[Jayd]

Another Shade of Grey......Jayd

 

N'kisi is an African Grey Parrot who exhibits apparently advanced English usage skills and other abilities.

According to news reports and websites,[1][2] as of January 2004, N'kisi had a vocabulary of about 950 words and used them in context, frequently in complete sentences, has approximated verb forms to maintain the correct tense (such as saying flied when not knowing the past tense of fly), and does not depend on learned phrases to communicate his thoughts. According to these sources, N'kisi is capable of understanding photographic images, and is able to name objects (within his vocabulary) appearing in a photo. He is also said to be capable of inventing new terms for things he does not know words for. One anecdote recounted by the chimpanzee scientist Jane Goodall[3] says that, upon meeting her in person after seeing a photo of her, N'Kisi asked, "Got a chimp?" It is claimed he demonstrates what appears to be a sense of humor.

N'kisi has also taken part in a published scientific study of telepathic abilities. The researchers who conducted the study claimed the results to present a statistically significant indication of ability, while the study[4] has been criticized by skeptics. There is also some controversy about whether parrots are capable of using language, or merely mimic what they hear. Some scientific studies—for example those conducted over a 30-year period by Irene Pepperberg with an African Grey named Alex and other parrots, which have been covered in stories on network television on numerous occasions[5]—have suggested that these parrots are capable of using words meaningfully in linguistic tasks, and scientists are now beginning to recognize the intelligence of parrots.[6]

References

 

 

• ^ Parrot's Oratory Stuns Scientists (BBC News)
  
• ^ Animal world's communication kings (BBC News)
  
• ^ Society for Scientific Exploration | Journal of Scientific Exploration | Testing a Language-Using Parrot for Telepathy
  
• ^ Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence-and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process: Amazon.de: Irene Pepperberg: Englische Bücher
  
• ^ Parrot Intelligence
  

 

External links

 

 

• The N'kisi Project Page
  
• Hear N'kisi Speak
  
• Skeptic's Dictionary entry on N'kisi
  
• A rebuttal to Skeptic
  

[Elvenking]

Excellent references JayD...I found these among searching for grey intelligence a while back and love reading about them. Cheers for this post my friend!

[danmcq]

Thanks for posting this Jay. I am certain it will peak the interest of the many new grey owners we have here.

 

N'kisi became very famous in the bbc news coverage, but then just disappeared from the radar after 2004. It is amazing to me that no further research, articles or updates by Aimee Morgana or Sheldrake have appeared anywhere.

 

I wish there was more videos and tapes of N'Kisi, along with follow-up blogs by Aimee, but nothing.