i was at sentosa over the weekend and managed to catch the bird show quite by chance. from a distance away i kept hearing this repeated sound made by some creature. when i got closer, i realised it was coming from the parrot enclosure. one very mischievous greenwing macaw by the name of rocky was calling out nonstop, while his other feathered friends were similarly perched nearby, nonchalant.
parrots have never been on my favorite animal list. but after today, i’m a fan! first of all, these birds were really beautiful. their feathers were of bright and vivid colors. the greenwing macaws had red crowns and bodies of royal blue and green. they also appeared to be very playful and mischievous, and seemed rather intelligent.
during the show, the parrots performed various tricks such as raising a flag, competing in basketball, playing hoops, and matching colorful wooden blocks of different shapes to the correct placement.
they even seemed able to do math! children in the audience called out two numbers (less than 10) to which the macaw did an addition. i was really impressed! it must have taken a lot of training for the bird to be able to recognise the numbers written on the white board, and then remember the correct answers.
i mean, there are 45 different combinations of the 10 numbers. so the parrot has to remember all 45 combinations and their answers. or 90, if the left and right positions of the numbers are taken into account. am i getting anything wrong here? because it seems the parrots are really intelligent!
the last part of the show was dedicated to wildlife conservation. the animal trainers said that in south america where these colorful macaws came from, trees are being logged down so fast, an entire rainforest the size of sentosa can disappear in a matter of hours. do they really go that quickly? i’m a little skeptical.
anyway, i really liked this segment of the show. it was really cute seeing the blue and gold macaw pick up the little pieces of garbage with his beak, walking across the table, and then stepping on the lever of the tiny dustbin to throw the garbage in.
one thing i noted is that the props used are all very colorful, like the feathers on their bodies. no wonder the birds like them. gee, i have seen similar bird shows when i was a kid. but i certainly don’t remember enjoying them as much as i did today!
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goes by the name veron (english) or wanting (chinese). a definitive leo born august 1, 1984. a solo traveler. loves cats, coffee, sensual music, yummy food and technology. when she's not at her job as an IS developer for the government, she's likely to be out dining, or visiting an interesting art gallery or event.
Nice photos, front-row some more! Weren’t there any water splashing stuff - they usually do that to tease and scare the front row people…Haha
Domestication really works on our feathered friends! And the pace of deforestation is a little hard to imagine…but you never know until you are as environmentally aware as the green activist groups in Singapore are as passionate about that problem. View all comments by harrison
Haha it was just a small bird show where people stood around the enclosure and watched the birds perform. To get some water action, I think I may go catch the pink dolphins at the Dolphin Lagoon. View all comments by Veron
Actually.. it may be that the parrot do know how to do maths.. there is even a particular lab parrot that can talk… as in, it understands what is being said… i guess one would have to redefine the term bird brain…. As for the rate of deforestation… lets just say that Domino effect can be rather significant in a lush jungle… falling a tree can bring about a whole line of destruction… And especially so since we can control the direction the tree falls…. Fast destruction? I’ll leave that to your imagination… View all comments by <(^<>^)>
I really doubt that parrots can do math! It would take a certain amount of sophistication for the brain to be able to compute an addition. What I think is that the parrots have been conditioned through years of training to be able to recognise and memorise those answers. They would probably be stumped if they were asked to add 1+1+1. View all comments by Veron
OMG….Rocky is still alive, I last saw him 10 years ago at SENTOSA too….
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG….parrot so long life meh?? View all comments by neo
I think it’s possible for parrots to live that long. Rocky was one of the biggest parrots I saw that day, so he must be one of the oldest too! Otherwise, I think they might have reused the names of the parrots. If I were to return there 30 years later and find that "rocky" is still around, I wouldn’t be surprised! View all comments by Veron
That’s why they named the parrot Rocky. It’s obviously inspired by the neverending sequels of the Sylvester Stallone boxing series…I even heard Rocky IV is coming up soon.
Soon, we’ll be hearing names like "Arnold" and "Jean Claude". Or "Seagal". Meet Swarzeneggar the blue-crested parrot! Awk be back!
The term "birdbrain" has actually been proven contrary to stereotypical views that the term is used to describe a low-intelligence creature. In fact, birds have pretty good brain development. So it’s not exactly a derogatory term nowadays. But "dumb" still means the same thing whenever, wherever. View all comments by harrison
Parrots are among the most intelligent birds around. And they do lead very long lives - the macaws can possibly live up to 50 years or even more.
I don’t know about their counting abilities, but there is an African grey parrot named Alex who appears capable of abstract thought. Interesting stuff… View all comments by Hai~Ren
Nowadays, when they call animals "clever", they mean the animals can do stunts like ride a bike, swim through hoops or something related to acrobatics. What about the intelligence quotient?
Abstract thought? That’s certainly intriguing…you mean, in a Pollock kind of way? Like artistic display - there’s an elephant at the Singapore Zoo that has drawn several paintings that seem to indicate some unique style of artistic flair.
Maybe there are more secrets to be unlocked at the Bird Park than we all know, huh? It’s a whole new world! View all comments by harrison
Hey, I love ur blog! Congrat for ur win in Blogfest, it is really impressive. How do u add the songs to ur blog … U wrote all the html code urself? .. My blog have some terrible prob so need to revamp it . View all comments by Jialin
I dunno if parrots can have artistic skills, but because parrots can talk (something chimpanzees and dolphins cannot do), they do offer some interesting insights into the minds of animals.
Interesting links on Alex the parrot:
http://www.123compute.net/dreaming/knocking/alex.html
http://www.primidi.com/2005/07/09.html
http://pubpages.unh.edu/~jel/video/alex.html View all comments by Hai~Ren
Thanks Hai~Ren and harrison, for your insightful discussion :) View all comments by Veron
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