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This is the VOA SpecialEnglish Science Report.
American scientists have found that some birds are moreintelligent than experts had believed. The scientists say birds haveabilities that involve communication and different kinds of memory.In some unusual cases, their abilities seem better than those ofhumans.
The findings were presented at the yearly meeting of the AmericanAssociation for the Advancement of Science. The scientists met forsix days last month in Boston, Massachusetts.
Irene Pepperberg presented her research about a Grey parrot namedGriffin. He lives in her laboratory at the Massachusetts Instituteof Technology in Cambridge.
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| IrenePepperberg with Alex, Griffin and Arthur |
Mizz Pepperberg says Griffin canarrange objects in order of size. She says the talking bird also cancombine words in the right order. For example, he will combine wordswhen asking for a piece of food.
The researcher says experts had thought that only humans andother mammals with large brains have the ability to combine objectsand words. She believes that bird brains have the ability tounderstand that complex tasks must be done in the correct order.
Some birds have other memory skills. For example, they collectand store thousands of seeds in autumn, and find them later inwinter.
Alan Kamil (pronounced camel) and Alan Bond of the University ofNebraska are studying the memories of birds called jays andnutcrackers. Their experiments suggest that these birds use naturalobjects to find the seeds they have stored. They found the birds useat least three objects, such as rocks or trees, to find the storedseeds.
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| Bluejay |
Mister Kamil also was able totrain a jay to choose one object instead of another. The bird usedthis skill to receive a prize, such as food. Scientists also saysome birds can learn as many as two-thousand different songs. Theysay songs may have developed as a way for birds to communicate withother birds.
Verner Bingman of Bowling Green State University in Ohio alsopresented research at the science meeting in Boston. Mister Bingmanbelieves that birds must have a special guidance system in theirbrain. He says that understanding how a bird's brain operates mayhelp us better understand how a human brain processes information.
This VOA Special English Science Report was written by GeorgeGrow.