YOU? At the top of the evolutionary ladder?
The only difference between humans and animals according to one behaviorist is that humans seem to need to believe that they are superior, other animals do not care. We have been around for a short time compared to parrots. The earliest hominid found so far is dated at 4.4 million years. Parrots, who are now considered to be the descendants of therapods and actual dinosaurs, go back 200 million. Perhaps a close look at our differences will be illuminating.
Parrots and humans have large brains. In recent studies, scientists examined the brains of 1440 parrots. If a parrot weighed as much as a chimpanzee its brain would be the same size as that ape. The lower parts of the avian brain are similar to our human ones. As many parrot companions know, they are great escape artists and learn by observation. Not only do they learn what they can do by watching others they also learn what not to do. Seeing another bird open a nut by dropping it they will repeat the same behavior to earn the fruit. Seeing a bird get caught in a trap they will avoid traps. This is much the same as our own reasoning. Alex the Congo African Grey proved beyond any doubt that parrots reason. He knew the difference between small and large. He could count and distinguish shapes and colors. Alex even demonstrated that he understood the concept of zero.
Their eyes are superior to ours. They see into the ultraviolet and have a 270-degree field of vision. Our vision is limited to 150 degrees and most of what we see that is not in the center of our visual field is a blur. While we do have better night vision (with only a few parrot exceptions), what good is night vision for the human animal that hunts for food by day? Do we enjoy working 14-hour days?
Obviously, their hearing is acute because they can learn to speak human words and phrases. Ear problems are rare in parrots and we humans are prone to them.
The pharynx and tongue work well together to produce vocalization in parrots. Unlike us, they can vocalize both during an inhale and during exhalation. They also can do something that few humans can—listen while talking!
The tongue is an versatile tool. It is flexible and has added touch receptors—you might think of it as a tongue and finger combined. The tongue has fewer taste receptors than a human but that may not be a disadvantage. Humans have a taste for fast food. That is certainly not a survival trait. You probably will never see an overweight bird in the wild. Having lived with parrots and cockatoos for quite some time I can attest to their ability to taste and choose foods.
The beak is an amazing adaptation. The human mouth cannot compare. Where the human mouth is wet and teeming with bacteria, the avian beak is dry and not prone to infection. Our teeth rot in our mouth almost as soon as they sprout. We also need two sets of teeth, baby and adult. A parrot’s beak grows throughout their lifetime and remains intact. Our adult teeth need to be maintained by dentists—a costly and painful process. The beak is not a hard piece of bone like our teeth. It is sensitive and lightweight and is able to perform the tasks of cutting and grinding. It can be used to delicately preen the keratin sheath off a feather or to crush a brazil nut’s shell to get at the morsel inside. Because their beak is versatile it can be used to get obtain foods other birds cannot eat. It acts as a fork, a spoon and a knife all rolled into one. Bony, “permanent” and unfeeling teeth are a poor substitute for a powerful, rejuvenating and sensitive beak. What can you do with a beak? You can pry, tear, hold, hull, grind, groom, climb, play, swing, feed your young, make a nest, turn an egg, defend yourself, gather food, carry things, and make noises such as clattering and snapping.
With 27 vertebrae, their necks are flexible and supple. They are able to maneuver their heads into any position for a full view of their surroundings. Our limited range of motion means that we must turn our entire body to see what is behind us. You won’t mug a bird from behind easily.
Mammals give up a great deal of their safety with live birth. The process of carrying a fetus for nine months puts the human female at severe risk. Hatching an egg allows the female to flee if a predator should attack. While it is true that the eggs may be lost it is also true that the female can lay more eggs to replace it. In the last stages of pregnancy a woman is easy prey for any predator; without someone to protect her she has little chance of survival against even a moderate predator. The human waddles to her doom while the bird flies away.
Milk production is unnecessary. A parrot partially digests food in the expanded section of the esophagus called “the crop.” They regurgitate this to their young. Both the male and female are equipped to feed their progeny. This task is left only to a female mammal. Providing milk to babies is an undue strain on a woman. Those who do not think so should check out the huge supply of artificial formulas popular in the grocery stores; if it is not a strain then why do women resort to these formulas? Human babies come with little protection from disease. Not so for parrot hatchlings; for this reason milk with its antibodies and other protection is unneeded.
Some may think that mammals need this milk because of their slow development into adults. Parrots, too, have an extended juvenile period of up to 5 years in larger species. This is comparable to human juvenile periods. The baby parrot is kept in a hollow (in most cases) where it is hidden from predators. It, too, requires much time to develop into a juvenile capable of taking its place in the daily affairs of its community. This juvenile period parallels the slow development of the brain required for advanced intelligence in humans. Both the human and the parrot learn most of how to live from their parents and siblings.
Look at all the gyms and health spas around the world. Human bodies tend to get fat and fall apart. Parrots have a built in gym. There is no better exercise than flight! Because their lungs are more efficient than ours they supply vast amounts of rich oxygen. Human lungs are inefficient by comparison. Humans retain old used air in their lungs and parrots do not. Parrots do not use their muscles to breathe in; unlike humans, they use their muscles to exhale. This makes for effective breathing under the heavy strain of flying. Flight beats walking for both exercise and getting where you want to go. Airplanes are a poor substitute for natural flight.
Our skin is prone to infestation by insects and disease. Our naked bodies do not fare well in the ultraviolet rays of the sun. Feathers are great protection against these natural enemies of the skin. Feathers also make a great means of communication. Humans use facial expression and hand gestures. A parrot’s body is one giant legion of semaphores. The feathers act like flags waving to signal the expression of feeling.
The human genitals and anus are unsightly, prone to various diseases and unsanitary if examined without bias. Parrots have a cloaca, also called the vent. This one organ contains within it all sexual and excretory functions. Should you ever have occasion to watch a parrot defecate you will see the truth of its function. The cloaca extends, drops all forms of waste and then retracts. This leaves little exposed to the air to attract bacteria or vermin. Where would you be without your toilet paper and bidet? Consider this; parrots evacuate their waste regularly—about every 20 minutes. Their bodies need to remain light for flight so they do not hold in waste. Humans, on the other hand, are full of…waste. On autopsy, human bodies often contain 20 pounds or more of fecal matter. We are truly unclean compared to these flighted wonders.
Versatile, flexible, and having opposable toes the feet of a parrot can turn the key on a padlock and remove that lock from their cage. They use their feet for grasping and manipulating as we do. There is only one muscle to open and close the foot so they cannot build weapons of mass destruction, invent a gun or formulate napalm. They will never build an atomic bomb. That kind of evil is not in them. I think that human hands have done far more harm than good in this world. The true weapon of mass destruction is the hand itself.
There are few civilizations where bloodshed was not a commonplace event in human history. On the other hand, parrots and cockatoos have lived together in loving communities for over 200 million years. Almost all parrots mate for life. They can live together in peace and harmony and we cannot. A perusal of the Durant history will show you that we cannot truly be called the master species. We are more like a virus that destroys everything it touches (Agent Smith agrees).
When someone tells you that we are higher on the evolutionary ladder than parrots remember this, the person saying this has about 20 pounds of fecal matter in their digestive tract. It is perfectly acceptable to point this out to them!
The only difference between humans and animals according to one behaviorist is that humans seem to need to believe that they are superior, other animals do not care. We have been around for a short time compared to parrots. The earliest hominid found so far is dated at 4.4 million years. Parrots, who are now considered to be the descendants of therapods and actual dinosaurs, go back 200 million. Perhaps a close look at our differences will be illuminating.
Parrots and humans have large brains. In recent studies, scientists examined the brains of 1440 parrots. If a parrot weighed as much as a chimpanzee its brain would be the same size as that ape. The lower parts of the avian brain are similar to our human ones. As many parrot companions know, they are great escape artists and learn by observation. Not only do they learn what they can do by watching others they also learn what not to do. Seeing another bird open a nut by dropping it they will repeat the same behavior to earn the fruit. Seeing a bird get caught in a trap they will avoid traps. This is much the same as our own reasoning. Alex the Congo African Grey proved beyond any doubt that parrots reason. He knew the difference between small and large. He could count and distinguish shapes and colors. Alex even demonstrated that he understood the concept of zero.
Their eyes are superior to ours. They see into the ultraviolet and have a 270-degree field of vision. Our vision is limited to 150 degrees and most of what we see that is not in the center of our visual field is a blur. While we do have better night vision (with only a few parrot exceptions), what good is night vision for the human animal that hunts for food by day? Do we enjoy working 14-hour days?
Obviously, their hearing is acute because they can learn to speak human words and phrases. Ear problems are rare in parrots and we humans are prone to them.
The pharynx and tongue work well together to produce vocalization in parrots. Unlike us, they can vocalize both during an inhale and during exhalation. They also can do something that few humans can—listen while talking!
The tongue is an versatile tool. It is flexible and has added touch receptors—you might think of it as a tongue and finger combined. The tongue has fewer taste receptors than a human but that may not be a disadvantage. Humans have a taste for fast food. That is certainly not a survival trait. You probably will never see an overweight bird in the wild. Having lived with parrots and cockatoos for quite some time I can attest to their ability to taste and choose foods.
The beak is an amazing adaptation. The human mouth cannot compare. Where the human mouth is wet and teeming with bacteria, the avian beak is dry and not prone to infection. Our teeth rot in our mouth almost as soon as they sprout. We also need two sets of teeth, baby and adult. A parrot’s beak grows throughout their lifetime and remains intact. Our adult teeth need to be maintained by dentists—a costly and painful process. The beak is not a hard piece of bone like our teeth. It is sensitive and lightweight and is able to perform the tasks of cutting and grinding. It can be used to delicately preen the keratin sheath off a feather or to crush a brazil nut’s shell to get at the morsel inside. Because their beak is versatile it can be used to get obtain foods other birds cannot eat. It acts as a fork, a spoon and a knife all rolled into one. Bony, “permanent” and unfeeling teeth are a poor substitute for a powerful, rejuvenating and sensitive beak. What can you do with a beak? You can pry, tear, hold, hull, grind, groom, climb, play, swing, feed your young, make a nest, turn an egg, defend yourself, gather food, carry things, and make noises such as clattering and snapping.
With 27 vertebrae, their necks are flexible and supple. They are able to maneuver their heads into any position for a full view of their surroundings. Our limited range of motion means that we must turn our entire body to see what is behind us. You won’t mug a bird from behind easily.
Mammals give up a great deal of their safety with live birth. The process of carrying a fetus for nine months puts the human female at severe risk. Hatching an egg allows the female to flee if a predator should attack. While it is true that the eggs may be lost it is also true that the female can lay more eggs to replace it. In the last stages of pregnancy a woman is easy prey for any predator; without someone to protect her she has little chance of survival against even a moderate predator. The human waddles to her doom while the bird flies away.
Milk production is unnecessary. A parrot partially digests food in the expanded section of the esophagus called “the crop.” They regurgitate this to their young. Both the male and female are equipped to feed their progeny. This task is left only to a female mammal. Providing milk to babies is an undue strain on a woman. Those who do not think so should check out the huge supply of artificial formulas popular in the grocery stores; if it is not a strain then why do women resort to these formulas? Human babies come with little protection from disease. Not so for parrot hatchlings; for this reason milk with its antibodies and other protection is unneeded.
Some may think that mammals need this milk because of their slow development into adults. Parrots, too, have an extended juvenile period of up to 5 years in larger species. This is comparable to human juvenile periods. The baby parrot is kept in a hollow (in most cases) where it is hidden from predators. It, too, requires much time to develop into a juvenile capable of taking its place in the daily affairs of its community. This juvenile period parallels the slow development of the brain required for advanced intelligence in humans. Both the human and the parrot learn most of how to live from their parents and siblings.
Look at all the gyms and health spas around the world. Human bodies tend to get fat and fall apart. Parrots have a built in gym. There is no better exercise than flight! Because their lungs are more efficient than ours they supply vast amounts of rich oxygen. Human lungs are inefficient by comparison. Humans retain old used air in their lungs and parrots do not. Parrots do not use their muscles to breathe in; unlike humans, they use their muscles to exhale. This makes for effective breathing under the heavy strain of flying. Flight beats walking for both exercise and getting where you want to go. Airplanes are a poor substitute for natural flight.
Our skin is prone to infestation by insects and disease. Our naked bodies do not fare well in the ultraviolet rays of the sun. Feathers are great protection against these natural enemies of the skin. Feathers also make a great means of communication. Humans use facial expression and hand gestures. A parrot’s body is one giant legion of semaphores. The feathers act like flags waving to signal the expression of feeling.
The human genitals and anus are unsightly, prone to various diseases and unsanitary if examined without bias. Parrots have a cloaca, also called the vent. This one organ contains within it all sexual and excretory functions. Should you ever have occasion to watch a parrot defecate you will see the truth of its function. The cloaca extends, drops all forms of waste and then retracts. This leaves little exposed to the air to attract bacteria or vermin. Where would you be without your toilet paper and bidet? Consider this; parrots evacuate their waste regularly—about every 20 minutes. Their bodies need to remain light for flight so they do not hold in waste. Humans, on the other hand, are full of…waste. On autopsy, human bodies often contain 20 pounds or more of fecal matter. We are truly unclean compared to these flighted wonders.
Versatile, flexible, and having opposable toes the feet of a parrot can turn the key on a padlock and remove that lock from their cage. They use their feet for grasping and manipulating as we do. There is only one muscle to open and close the foot so they cannot build weapons of mass destruction, invent a gun or formulate napalm. They will never build an atomic bomb. That kind of evil is not in them. I think that human hands have done far more harm than good in this world. The true weapon of mass destruction is the hand itself.
There are few civilizations where bloodshed was not a commonplace event in human history. On the other hand, parrots and cockatoos have lived together in loving communities for over 200 million years. Almost all parrots mate for life. They can live together in peace and harmony and we cannot. A perusal of the Durant history will show you that we cannot truly be called the master species. We are more like a virus that destroys everything it touches (Agent Smith agrees).
When someone tells you that we are higher on the evolutionary ladder than parrots remember this, the person saying this has about 20 pounds of fecal matter in their digestive tract. It is perfectly acceptable to point this out to them!