Affe #240

About Affe mit Waffe Deprecated

Nim Chimpinsky was convinced that the parrot brain was anatomically wired in such a way that language development was theoretically very possible. He had observed the colorful birds from the terrace of his tree habitat. Well, observed wasn't the right term. He had repeatedly thrown hard nuts at them to make them stop sitting on the railing. Stepping on bird droppings every morning while being on his terrace to eat his breakfast bananas wasn't his favorite pastime. On one such occasion, he was sure that one of the birds had called swear words at him after he turned around. This piqued his interest. He set about capturing one of the parrots to study the specimen under more scientific circumstances.

His first captive study subject, a cockatoo, didn't need to swear, as Nim soon found out the next morning. There were far more efficient ways to drive its new owner to the brink of insanity. As soon as the sun had risen and the room was halfway lit, the bird began to make itself felt acoustically. Nim quickly figured out that cockatoos had a very loud voice that could make quite a variety of sounds, from croaks and squeals to whistles – often repeated in sequence. Just as there was a few minutes of silence and Nim managed to doze off, he was awakened from sleep by a very loud, unmistakable scream – followed by energetic cracking noises. Apparently, the cockatoo had enough of announcing its presence and emptying its feeding bowl. He had taken a short break to now determinedly gnaw on the wooden cage. It seemed Nim's cockatoo was left-footed, also with a very powerful and agile beak, so the cage only offered brief resistance. After the prison break, the bird flew contentedly back to the freedom of the nearby treetops and disappeared into the dense green of the jungle. Nim, now wide awake while admiring the bird's skill, had not tried to stop it. But maybe it was partly because he had great respect for the powerful beak that could crack wooden bars and walnuts like crispbread.

When the cockatoo was out of sight, Nim again heard someone cursing from behind. He turned around, startled, and looked straight into the culprit's small shiny black eyes – a gray parrot had perched on his roof to get a better look at the activities of the cockatoo. Nim had heard of this species but had never seen one in the wild in this forest, as they were not native to the area. Therefore, he assumed that the bird must have escaped from captivity. There he had probably also learned to speak – and above all to curse.

To find out more about the parrot's talents, he decided to take a gentler approach this time. Instead of capturing the animal, he offered it food every day to accustom it to the presence of monkeys. By the fifth feeding day, Nim had decided on a name for his new friend: Alex, which was an acronym for "apian learning experiment". After Alex got used to Nim, the monkey and the parrot began to develop their very unique two-way communication code to find out how far Alex's repertoire of curses and intelligence stretched. Nim confronted the bird with everyday objects and situations, comparing Alex's and his own reactions to the same problems.

Nim soon discovered that swearing was Alex's way of showing excitement. The parrot could also create new labels for objects it didn't know the name of. For example, being familiar with bananas and cherries, apples were soon called "banerries", which was very plausible. Over time, Nim discovered that their characters were also very similar. In situations, when a promised treat was refused after completing an unpleasant task, both the chimp and the bird were first angry and then annoyed. In Nim's case, this usually happened when he couldn't get coconut ice cream after he had taken the trash down at his wife's request. Nim recognized the same irritation in Alex. If the bird completed a task and said "Wanna Banana!" but was offered a nut instead, it stared at it in silence, then took the nut and threw it at Nim, offended, before asking for the fruity treat a second time. After a short time, it was basically impossible to tell who was teaching whom.

A few weeks later, the wild animal was tamed and finally able to distinguish between nouns, verbs, and adjectives and even understand abstract concepts. Although his grammar was still lacking, the parrot was quite proud of the progress he was making. He had finally managed to teach the stubborn monkey something useful. Nim was now able to swear using sign language.

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