
In Nigeria, what language do you teach a parrot? - acsillag
http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-nigeria-what-language-do-you-teach-a-parrot-1449022435
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jedberg
This makes me so sad, not because of the language issue, but because these
birds are not being cared for. :(

Those cages in the pictures are _way_ too small for an African Gray. Also, you
need someone who is willing to spend hours _every day_ entertaining their
bird.

The African Gray is like a three year old child that stop growing. You
wouldn't put a three year old in a tiny cage and then ignore it. You shouldn't
do that with the African Gray either. And their average lifespan is 70 years,
so it will most likely outlive you if you take good care of it.

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peachepe
THIS.

Birds shouldn't be kept in round cages, specially not that small. They need to
be able to fly and stretch. They are having a very depressing life. I have a
couple of parrots and already feel bad about having them at all (they could be
flying somewhere), and the only time they are in a cage is when nobody's at
home (evil cats are evil).

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OopsCriticality
Birds are neat.

My father had some sort of a mynah bird in a classroom where he taught middle
school science.

(Mynahs can be phenomenal mimics, as this one was; it's also important to know
that social birds both crave attention and love causing a scene.)

This particular bird learned that the sound of emergency vehicle sirens had
the peculiar and interesting effect of causing the students to leap out of
their seats in order to run to the windows to see what was happening outside…
what the students never seemed to figure out was that the siren was in fact
(almost always) the mynah bird mimicking a siren with perfect fidelity, down
to the Doppler effect.

The students fell for it _every_ time.

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mc32
Why don't birdmongers setup a clearinghouse where they can trade parrots to
fit the language profiles fit for their markets?

The premium should offset any transport costs as well as warehousing costs
incurred by carrying inventory many months without moving it.

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mastazi
The most interesting part of this article is actually the last few paragraphs,
where the ornithologist explains that wild parrot actually "speak" different
types of "parrot-languages".

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pvaldes
Yup, the TIMTOWTDI effect...

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stcredzero
The same as anywhere else. The one the most people swear the most in.

