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So… did Polly want a cracker?
No, Polly wanted strawberries, watermelons, and ice-cream.
A mischievous parrot was caught ordering strawberries, watermelons
and ice-cream after ‘falling in love’ with Amazon’s voice-activated
device Alexa.
Rocco, a homeless African grey, keeps using the personal
assistant to order his favorite treats, as well kites and light
bulbs, and likes to set the mood by playing romantic music.
The clever bird was taken in by the National Animal Welfare
Trust’s Berkshire center earlier this year after he was found as a
stray.
But staff member Marion Wischnewski agreed to become his foster
parent after he caused a few issues in the Great Shefford office by
swearing and throwing his water bowl around.
Ms Wischnewski said fun-loving Rocco enjoys dancing and putting
on his favourite tunes. But thanks to a parental lock on her Amazon
account, the attempted purchases have not gone through, The Times
reported. “I’ve come home before and he has romantic music
playing,” she said. “He loves to dance and has the sweetest
personality.”
African grey parrots are one of the most intelligent bird
species. They are capable of building vocabularies of up to 1,000
words or more.
One of the most famous African greys was Alex, who was the
subject of a 30-year experiment by animal psychologist Dr Irene
Pepperberg in America.
By the time Alex died at the age of 31 in 2007, he could count,
identify objects, shapes, colours, and materials, and understood
the concepts of bigger, smaller, same and different.
Dr Pepperberg said the parrot had the intelligence level of a
five-year-old human and the emotional level of a two-year-old by
the time he died, and that he hadn’t reached his full
potential.
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