N'kisi is a
grey parrot
The grey parrot (''Psittacus erithacus''), also known as the Congo grey parrot, Congo African grey parrot or African grey parrot, is an Old World parrot in the family Psittacidae. The Timneh parrot ''(Psittacus timneh)'' once was identified as ...
(''Psittacus erithacus'') thought to exhibit advanced
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
talking skills and other abilities.
Accomplishments
According to news reports and websites, as of January 2004 N'kisi had a vocabulary of about 950 words and used them in context, frequently in complete sentences, had approximated verb forms to maintain the correct tense (such as saying ''flied'' when not knowing the past tense of ''fly''), and did not depend on learned phrases to communicate his thoughts.
N'kisi was shown as being supposedly capable of understanding photographic images, naming objects (within his vocabulary) appearing in a photo and inventing new terms for things he does not know words for by combining other words, like "pretty smell medicine" for aromatherapy oils. One anecdote recounted by the primatologist
Jane Goodall
Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist. Seen as the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best kn ...
says that, upon meeting her in person after seeing a photo of her, N'Kisi asked, "Got a chimp?" It was claimed he demonstrated a possible sense of humor.
Controversy
There is 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
Irene Maxine Pepperberg (born April 1, 1949) is a scientist noted for her studies in animal cognition, particularly in relation to parrots. She has been a professor, researcher and/or lecturer at multiple universities, and she is currently a res ...
with a grey parrot named
Alex and other parrots, covered in stories on network television on numerous occasions—have suggested that these parrots are capable of using words meaningfully in linguistic tasks.
N'kisi took part in a published scientific study of
telepathic
Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...
abilities conducted by
Rupert Sheldrake
Alfred Rupert Sheldrake (born 28 June 1942) is an English author and parapsychology researcher who proposed the concept of morphic resonance, a conjecture which lacks mainstream acceptance and has been criticized as pseudoscience. He has worke ...
and the parrot's owner Aimee Morgana, after Morgana had reported seemingly telepathic reactions from the bird, such as it commenting on a movie Morgana was watching despite not being able to see the screen, or saying "hi Rob" when Morgana picked up the phone to call a friend of that name.
The researchers who conducted the study claim the results present a statistically significant indication of ability, while the study
has been criticized by skeptics.
See also
*
List of individual birds
This is a list of well-known real birds. For famous fictional birds, see list of fictional birds.
* Águia Vitória, a bald eagle who serves as the mascot for Portuguese football club S.L. Benfica
* Albert Ross, an albatross believed to have bee ...
*
Koko (gorilla)
Hanabiko "Koko" (July 4, 1971 – June 19, 2018) was a female western lowland gorilla. Koko was born in San Francisco Zoo, and lived most of her life at The Gorilla Foundation's preserve in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The name , , is of Japanese or ...
*
Hoover (seal)
Hoover ( – July 25, 1985) was a harbor seal who was able to imitate basic human speech.
Cundy’s Harbor
On May 5, 1971, Scottie Dunning discovered a tiny male harbor seal pup on the shore of Cundy's Harbor, Maine. After a failed attemp ...
*
Batyr (elephant)
*
Washoe (chimpanzee)
Washoe (c. September 1965 – October 30, 2007) was a female common chimpanzee who was the first non-human to learn to communicate using American Sign Language (ASL) as part of an animal research experiment on animal language acquisition.
Washoe ...
*
Kanzi (bonobo)
Kanzi (born October 28, 1980), also known by the lexigram (from the character 太), is a male bonobo who has been the subject of several studies on great ape language. According to Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, a primatologist who has studied t ...
References
External links
The N'kisi Project Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nkisi
Individual parrots
Animal intelligence
Individual talking birds