Watch the first video (from 1 minute onwards, esp. around 2:30). Wow. Just wow. The bird isn't just going forward, he navigates edges, turns the buggy, gets out of ruts, chooses to drive across the (narrow) paved path instead of in gravel (and navigates to avoid the latter), and clearly understands the mechanisms of controlling a buggy/car.
I'm one of the biggest proponents of animal "sentience" (my main problem is with that word itself - I think the differences between us and certain animals is a question of quantity/scale, not a matter of us possessing reasoning and will and them not), and despite our family having owned multiple African Grey parrots, I honestly would never have thought this was possible. The physical disconnect, hand-eye coordination (well, hand-beak) needed, the abstraction of movement to a joystick... it's really quite the accomplishment! Someone needs to write new journal papers about this ASAP. There's history to be made, and I can honestly say this is one of the most momentous recording I've seen in my life.
The video of the owner training him to turn right near the bottom of the page almost appears as if the parrot is messing with the guy and purposely not turning in the correct manner. Made me smile when he kept putting him back in the initial position only to see him turn in a different way.
Given the intelligence of African Gray Parrots (which is estimated to be around a 4 or 5 year old child), there's a good chance the bird was doing it intentionally when it kept having to repeat the task over and over.
Birds like this are supposed to also get extremely attached to their owner (as much as any owner and their dog), especially when they don't have a mate. Some get to the point if they're away from their owner for more than a couple of days, they stress out and start pulling out their feathers in a non-healthy manner that's not just preening.
From friends that have birds, their chirps and squawks are as communicative as barks and meows of cats and dogs. There's also evidence that birds use those noises to communicate in an intelligent way with each other (http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July11/ParrotNaming.html). They're trying to say what they can in the only way they know how. Even if one happens to bite, it's generally trying to tell you something and is at a loss of how else to express it (which is rarely meant to hurt you, since their beaks could do serious damage if they wanted). Some do bite for other reasons, but those tend to be from the owner not training it properly. Training a parrot from observing friends with them appears as daunting as training an intelligent breed of dog.
Seems like building the buggy though solved the poor bird's frustrations. He most likely did feel abandoned when his owner left the room.
Inspired by the African parrot's speeches in past, I had often considered raising an African Grey parrot with human teachings from a young age, akin to gorillas. It would certainly be exhausting with learning how to teach and teaching it. At least to see if it can pass it on to other animals. Perhaps even demand the right to vote!
However, the African Grey parrots are becoming endangered because people want them as a pet. I feel bad for wanting one now.
Speaking of that, its behavior listed at some of the linked articles on the main site seems to closely resemble that of a 4 or 5 year old child (ignoring the guardian's writing style):
The first toy was a sound-activated squirt gun. This toy sprayed water on Pepper whenever he screamed. After an initial period of silent astonishment at his human companion's sheer ingenuity, Pepper tested the toy thoroughly and grew to love it. Of course, Pepper's shrieks were rewarded so he screamed more than ever, although now, his frustration was tempered with long moments of soggy, shrieking delight.
"He started using it as a bird bath", admits Mr Gray, who originally designed this particular toy to quiet Pepper. He added: but "then he'd scream just to be squirted."
Another parrot that was studied closely for its intelligence was Alex the Parrot. There was evidence it understood the concept of zero and could put together words to describe objects it hadn't seen before:
"Alex understood the turn-taking of communication and often the syntax used in language.[10] He called an apple a "banerry", which Pepperberg thought to be a combination of "banana" and "cherry", two fruits he was more familiar with.[14]"
Alex also had a tendency to turn the tables on the researches by giving incorrect answers when it knew the correct one as well:
Once, Alex was given several different colored blocks (two red, three blue, and four green—similar to the picture above). Pepperberg asked him, "What color three?" expecting him to say blue. However, as Alex had been asked this question before, he seemed to have become bored. He answered "five!" This kept occurring until Pepperberg said "Fine, what color five?" Alex replied "none". This suggests that parrots, like children, get bored. Sometimes, Alex purposely answered the questions incorrectly, despite knowing the correct answer.[15]
Though it's only self-anecdotal, I put some old peanuts out a while ago for some birds or squirrels to eat and noticed that a pair of Blue Jays were usually grabbing them. I started putting the peanuts in different locations and would observe how they would react. At first, they would look for them around their usual spot and then they would search around the yard until they discovered where they were located now.
I was going to take it a step further and cover one in some way (like with a paper cup) and another next to it exposed see if they would spot both of them. However, they stopped coming around one day and couldn't take my amateur experiment any further. They also were very observant to if you were watching them as well. At least several times they decided not to grab the peanuts that were closer to the house and where I was watching them through the window most likely because they detected me.
I can never get enough information on nearly any random topic and lately that's been extended to birds. The past few years that I have been studying birds more closely, I've realized that we underestimate the intelligence and cleverness of many of them despite being probably the most common animal we see in the wild on a daily basis.
Don't own any, but just find them to be uniquely interesting animals for their odd behaviors and habits (such as why many birds end up pairing together for a number of years to raise offspring while most other animals do not), which I end up finding to be similar to many of the quirks that us humans also tend to share at times.
My family did have a budgie (parakeet) though when I was younger, but it was not my pet specifically and I didn't take a huge interest at the time.
I jump from topic to topic a lot, hyper focusing on it to suck up whatever useful information I can. History, programming, art, music, whatever. Just like many of us here, I just have a curious nature about nearly everything and want to find out what makes something do or act as it does :)
Since I started to take more interest in them, I realized how much more they happen to be around while running errands or just getting some exercise at the park. I guess if anything, they make me feel closer to nature when I'm surrounded by concrete and skyscrapers. Sort of an oasis in the middle of a desert if there's a metaphor for it.
Even the lowly house sparrow is more savvy than I used to believe. They've been observed making use automatic opening doors by triggering the sensors (http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Wilson/v103n04/p0725-p0726.pdf). After I read that, it made more sense how the sparrows at a nearby supermarket by me happen to find shelter inside its walls.
For anyone that just has a general interest or wants an informative introduction to birds, the BBC did a great series on them a while ago, narrated by David Attenborough (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_of_Birds). Can't say I like all birds, but I think they're a species that tends to be underestimated and taken for granted by us when compared to mammals for their intelligence and adaptability.
Birds and Squirrels are the easiest to do backyard "research" on/with. We did an experiment with jays where we put some nuts on a button which was a door bell, it would ding when they too k the nuts. Then we'd go out and set up an experiment on the porch. After about a week of this they'd ring the button when they wanted to be "experimented" with :-) One of the things I wondered was how much energy you could harvest from a squirrel. Basically training it to run in a wheel until the treat dropped. (the wheel being hooked to a generator to charge a battery). Then stretching out the treat drop until you reach the end of squirrel's patience.
In one video, it drives the buggy over to its owner to see what food he was eating. Even parrots are nosy about what people are eating from watching several of my friends' birds, like cats and dogs. They end up yelping when they see you eating until you give them something special to eat too.
There's other observations as mentioned, but that one seems to show the parrot has a goal in mind when he's moving it.
See my other comment here. If you watch the linked video, the bird shows cognitive obstacle avoidance, navigation along lines and on a preferred narrow path, and more. Definitely a "goal" in mind, not random movements.
Watch the first video (from 1 minute onwards, esp. around 2:30). Wow. Just wow. The bird isn't just going forward, he navigates edges, turns the buggy, gets out of ruts, chooses to drive across the (narrow) paved path instead of in gravel (and navigates to avoid the latter), and clearly understands the mechanisms of controlling a buggy/car.
I'm one of the biggest proponents of animal "sentience" (my main problem is with that word itself - I think the differences between us and certain animals is a question of quantity/scale, not a matter of us possessing reasoning and will and them not), and despite our family having owned multiple African Grey parrots, I honestly would never have thought this was possible. The physical disconnect, hand-eye coordination (well, hand-beak) needed, the abstraction of movement to a joystick... it's really quite the accomplishment! Someone needs to write new journal papers about this ASAP. There's history to be made, and I can honestly say this is one of the most momentous recording I've seen in my life.