Have you ever seen an animal talk? That’s right, you know, use words or sign language to get their message across. Well, we came across quite a few animals that could communicate intelligently, sometimes even more so than certain humans.
Today, we countdown 15 animals who can talk. So, get yourself an interpreter, just in case, and focus.
15 – EINSTEIN THE PARROT –
Number 15 on our list is Einstein the Parrot. Einstein is an African Grey Parrot from Congo, hatched on June 15, 1997. He was hatched in Garland, Texas, a place called “Joanna’s Nest Box.”
Parrots live a very long time and they require more care, proper nutrition, and training than most birds. Time and patience are required if you get yourself a parrot friend. Parrots need a lot of attention and lots of toys and activities to keep them from being bored.
Parrots are also expensive. It is often said, “Having a parrot is like raising a 2 or 3-year-old child for the rest of your life!” In November 2014, Einstein became famous when his impersonation of Matthew McConaughey went viral. Many of his other videos also became very popular.
14 – Lucy the Chimp
Number 14 on our list is Lucy the Chimp. When she was only two days old, Lucy, a chimpanzee, was purchased by the University of Oklahoma and sent to live with Dr. Maurice Temerin, a noted psychologist who, along with his wife, raised the little chimp as if she were their own human child. They taught Lucy how to eat normal meals at the table using silverware.
She could dress, often choosing to wear skirts just like her “mother” did. She could even make tea for her “parents” and the team of researchers who trained and cared for her. Lucy could not only give the signs for objects like airplanes, balls, and food, but she could also express her emotions with her hands, often “saying” when she was hungry, happy, or sad. Lucy had become so close to humans in almost every way that she only found human men, not male chimpanzees, sexually attractive.
In her mind, she was the same as her parents. It’s a sad fact that once a captive chimp has reached about four or five years old, their immense strength can become a danger to their human caretakers.
Often, they need to be placed in a zoo, a lab, or some other facility better equipped to handle primates. Here, the Temerlins raised Lucy as their daughter until 1977, when she was almost 12 years old before they finally felt like they had to find her a new home.
After much deliberation, they decided upon a nature preserve in the Gambia on the west coast of Africa. However, it would not be as simple as they’d hoped. At the preserve, they put Lucy in a cage at night to protect her from predators. She had only ever slept in a bed inside a nice, quiet, suburban home, so the jungle was a new and frightening environment for her.
She was also scared of the other chimps, strange creatures she had only encountered a few times before in her life, preferring to stay close to her parents and Janis whenever she could. She wasn’t eating because her food had always been delivered to her on a plate; she didn’t even understand the concept of foraging. When her parents suddenly became distant and weren’t providing her with the life she had always known, Lucy became confused and sad.
She would often use the sign for “hurt.” And she lost much of her hair because of the stress of her new situation. Realizing that Lucy would never move on if they stayed, her parents left her behind after three weeks. For nearly eight years, Lucy refused to give up her human ways. She wanted human food, human interaction, and to be loved by what she considered, one of her own kind. It wasn’t until Janis stopped living on the island that Lucy could finally accept her new life and joined a troupe of chimps. Sadly, Lucy’s decomposed body was discovered in 1987.
Alex the Gray Parrot
Number 13 on our list is Alex the Gray parrot. Alex is an African gray parrot purchased from a Chicago pet store in 1977. Dr. Irene Pepperberg bought the one-year-old bird to see if she could teach a parrot to understand language similarly to chimpanzees and gorillas that had been taught American Sign Language. It was believed that a large brain, like a primate’s, was necessary to gain language. By comparison, a parrot’s brain is about the size of a walnut, so they believed it that mimicry was the best they could hope for.
Instead, the work of Pepperberg and Alex, before his sudden death in 2007, has changed the perceptions of many in the scientific community. According to Dr. Pepperberg, Einstein could identify 50 different objects, knew seven colors and shapes, and many kinds of materials like wool, paper, and wood. However, he also grasped more complex concepts that required a higher level of thought and understanding.
