Parrot Zero

[Michael Corriss <mcorriss@gate.net>]

Smart bird:

> http://news.com.com/2061-11128_3-5786999.html
>
>July 13, 2005 12:12 PM PDT
>
>A parrot gets the concept of zero
>
>An African Grey Parrot at Brandeis University appears to understand a 
>numerical concept akin to zero. In a >series of counting experiments, Alex, a 
>28-year-old parrot who lives in a Brandeis lab run by comparative 
>>psychologist Irene Pepperberg, spontaneously and correctly used the label 
>"none" during trials of his >counting skills to describe an absence of colored 
>blocks on a tray. 
>The findings, published in the current issue of The Journal of Comparative 
>Psychology, add to a growing body >of scientific evidence that the avian 
>brain, though quite different from the brains of mammals, are capable >of 
>handling more complex processes than previously thought. 
>Generally, humans don't begin to understand the concept of zero until about 
>three or four years old (longer >in the case of some). Chimps and spider 
>monkeys have been shown to have some rudimentary understanding of the >concept 
>of none. Grey parrots have the brain the size of a walnut. 
>Posted by Michael Kanellos
>TalkBack

-mpc