3 ms·

In Nigeria, what language do you teach a parrot?

31 points by acsillag 11y ago

stcredzero 11y ago
The same as anywhere else. The one the most people swear the most in.
mc32 11y ago
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.
jedberg 11y ago
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.
- _vn5r 11y ago
  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).
mastazi 11y ago
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".
- pvaldes 11y ago
  Yup, the TIMTOWTDI effect...
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
OopsCriticality 11y ago
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.

31 points by acsillag 11y ago

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

mc32 11y ago

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.

jedberg 11y ago

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.

_vn5r 11y ago
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).

mastazi 11y ago

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".

pvaldes 11y ago
Yup, the TIMTOWTDI effect...

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

OopsCriticality 11y ago

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.