It has been a long time since I posted here. It’s not for lack of material. Animal Intelligence doesn’t have a lot of readers, but you few brave souls continue to send me good stories.
For example, here’s a story about Yosuke the Japanese parrort. When Yosuke escaped from his cage, he was able to return home because he knew his address. From the CNN story:
“I’m Mr. Yosuke Nakamura,” the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs.
“We checked the address, and what do you know, a Nakamura family really lived there. So we told them we’ve found Yosuke,” Uemura said.
The Nakamura family told police they had been teaching the bird its name and address for about two years.
This instance may or may not be indicative of animal intelligence, but it’s still a fun story. I grew up around birds, and I know they’re smart. Once our yellow-naped Amazon flew from one end of the house to the other and crashed into the piture window at full speed, falling to the ground stunned. I rushed over to see him stand up, shake his feathers, and announce, “That was fun.” To this day I have no idea if he had any idea what he was saying. (I had also taught him to say “I’m Superman” but that phrase wasn’t appropriate to the situation.)
JD thanks for posting the link to this blog. I have added it to my bloglines and will probably be a more regular reader here than at GRS!
I have a story for you regarding animal intelligence and I will try to keep it brief.
One of my 5 cats is allowed backyard privileges because he is far too old to jump the fence. He likes to go out and sleep in the weeds and I allow him this privilege because it brings him such total happiness. The others are strictly indoor cats and have never shown a desire to be outside.
Several years ago I spent a warm afternoon working in my backyard and while I was doing so the door to my ancient shed was open. When I finished for the day I put my tools away and closed up the shed.
Later I realized I had not seen Sonny and could not remember him coming in. I went outside and called him several times to no avail. Not unusual. He really never has gone outside the fence and I was pretty sure he was up in the far backyard sleeping.
Camille (who was 2 at the time and one of the strictly indoor cats) was unusually vocal that night and kept meowing at me. I eventually went to bed but woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. Camille once again was persistent in her vocalizations. Since I was up anyway I decided to go out and try calling Sonny in once again. Although she has never shown any desire to go outside the minute I opened the door Camille ran outside. I ran to bring her back in but she ran up to the shed and stood in front of the door and began meowing very loudly.
At 2 am, standing in my backyard wearing a long t-shirt and nothing else the lightbulb went on and I opened the shed door.
Sonny calmly jumped out and he and Camille walked to the back door.
How that cat just KNEW and took it upon herself to lead me to solve the problem I will never know but since then whenever she becomes very vocal I listen to her. It is usually a very good reason.