Conversations with Cosmo by Betty Jean Craige

Author:Betty Jean Craige
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sherman Asher Publishing

Cosmo takes Mary for a walk.

Cosmo seems to be playing when she mimics the smoke alarm, the telephone, the answering machine, the dogs’ bark, and the truck backing up. But I can’t tell whether her amusement—if that’s what it is—comes from my responses to her mimicry or from the act of mimicry itself. Pretending that she was not making the peeps of the smoke alarm or the rrrring of the phone when I’d try to catch her doing it shows her desire to fool me. She must take fun in that. Yet she also mimics the sounds of her environment when I’m not around—in the morning before I come into her room; during the day, according to Erin’s video camera; and whenever she notices an unfamiliar noise that interests her, such as a siren.

African Greys have a natural ability to mimic, and they can mimic unfamiliar noises their whole lives. In the wild, Greys reportedly imitate birds of other species, unlike some other parrots who tend to imitate only birds of their own. So what is the evolutionary advantage to accurate vocal mimicry for African Greys? Harvard researcher Michael Schindlinger writes, “Imitative vocal learning is also a reliable social display of neural functions—requiring good hearing, memory, and muscle control for sound production—that may be under consideration by a potential mate or ally.” Is that showing off? Maybe Cosmo is showing off to me—and to my friends. Maybe she is proving to herself that she is “whatta bird.” Whatever her aim, she loves doing it and she is expert at it.

African Greys don’t reach sexual maturity until age six, more or less, so in the wild they have a long time to play and to educate themselves on how to be a parrot, which they do by imitating the behavior—and, I assume, copying the bird calls—of their elders in the flock. Unlike hummingbirds and honey bees, Greys do not hatch with survival skills ready for use; they must acquire them in their first few years of life. I think that is why Greys and other parrots bred in captivity adapt well to our human homes. By interacting with us humans when they’re young, observing our behavior, and imitating our communication with one another, they educate themselves on how to be a pet parrot. I leave the question of the relationship between high intelligence and lengthy sexual immaturity to the experts, but I do believe that parrots’ extended period of play and learning correlates with their ability to live happily with a human family and, in some species, with their ability to talk.

Wild-caught parrots, who have learned how to be a parrot in the wild, will rarely adapt happily to the human home. For wild-caught parrots, the human home represents captivity and dispossession.

Cosmo has expanded my awareness of the rich natural life around us, and she has done this by talking with me. She has instilled in me much greater empathy than I used to have for all the birds, squirrels, deer, and turtles with whom we share precious space on earth.

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