N'kisi is a
grey parrot (''Psittacus erithacus'') thought to exhibit advanced
English 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; 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English zoologist, Primatology, primatologist and Anthropology, anthropologist. She is considered the world's foremo ...
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 with a grey parrot named
Alex
Alex is a given name. Similar names are Alexander, Alexandra, Alexey or Alexis.
People
Multiple
* Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people
* Alex Cook (disambiguation), multiple people
* Alex Forsyth (disambiguation), multiple people
* Al ...
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. He proposed the concept of morphic resonance, a conjecture that lacks mainstream acceptance and has been widely criticized as pseudoscience. He has ...
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
* Alex (parrot), Alex, a grey parrot wh ...
*
Batyr (elephant)
*
Hoover (seal)
*
Kanzi (bonobo)
*
Koko (gorilla)
Hanabiko, nicknamed "Koko" (July 4, 1971 – June 19, 2018) was a female western lowland gorilla born in the San Francisco Zoo and cross-fostered by Francine Patterson for use in ape language experiments. Koko gained public attention as the sub ...
*
Washoe (chimpanzee)
References
External links
The N'kisi Project Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nkisi
Individual parrots
Animal intelligence
Individual talking birds
Individual birds in the United States