Have you heard of Alex, an African Grey Parrot that was
a PhD project at UC Davis that actually had a very large
vocabulary and was taught to identify objects and do
simple math. This was more than just association, they
could hold up an object and ask Alex, "what is the
shape" and he would answer "round". Then, holding up
the same object, ask "how many" and he would answer
"1". The report also said that he would imitate many
sounds, including laughter. I have heard stories of
African Grey's imitating the telephone ringing (so
realistic that the owner kept trying to answer the
phone), door bells etc. Someone told me once that their
African Grey would start vocalizing in the middle of the
night, and get very loud. Just when the owner was going
to yell at the bird, the bird would say, "shut up" and
then laugh. She claims she never taught it to laugh,
but certainly thinks that birds have a sense of humor.

Deana McReynolds
> >Persons who deal with African Grey parrots claim that they have seen some
> >very "human" characteristics in this species - I can't remember if
> >laughter was one of them, but amusement in the birds at the researcher's
> >antics seemed to be.
>
> >Toni
>
> Not quite on the same topic - I had a friend whose roommate had an African
> Gray
> that learned how to perfectly mimic her cats "meow". It caused incredible
> confusion.
>
> John Chapman
> Seattle
>