How intelligent is a parot?

Why no replies? I found this quite interesting, what really makes the distinction between us and the parrot, brain wise, other than the level of intelligence? Does it have "intelligence", like is it self-aware? It can obviously think for it's self...these may be stupid questions...not sure.

I find this unsurprising. The great apes have basic societal structures and even trade between tribes for safe passage. They can solve problems, do very basic arithmetic and learn a fairly decent vocabulary. Functionally they are on par with a human of an i.q. between 60 and 75, depending on what species we are talking about. Gorillas have long been known to be able to communicate with sign language and do basic arithmetic, solve basic problems ect. The also have better short term memory than humans, when shown a pattern on a screen they can touch the screen in the exact places that a set of lighted dots appeared to replicate the pattern accurately.

Also, if Stephen Fry is to be believed, if presented with a camera, a gorilla will not only take it apart piece by piece, but put it back together again. Bit of pub quiz knowledge for you.

I have seen this, the numbers flash up for a split second, and they touch where the numbers were, with extreme precision and speed. You say they trade items for safe passage, now that is smart...

That was quite interesting, I'm quite familiar with chimp intelligence but not so with parrots

I am not surprised though, a number of animals, all social, exhibit the basics of human child behaviour. If you look at it objectively, it is clear that consciousness is on a sliding scale, is emergent and must be a result of humans doing basically the same thing that other animals do, only "better".

(Man I hate linking to my site all the time, but I'm only trying to be informative and get me some feedback! I have proposed a model for consciousness, which basically explains how the mind of any "higher" beast works, would explain the parrot I believe, and I'm rewriting it now, so take a ganders if you're interested).

Guys,

I have a small parrot and man!! he can talk and knows what he is talking about and to top it all he has one hell of a sense of humor

Are we the only earthly beings that have a higher consciousness,? I think not

Hey, I find this extremely interesting as well. I was wondering what he does when confronted with a mirror?

I have an egyptian mau and he is ridiculously intelligent in comparison to most house cats. I've had him actually 'trick' me before. I, being the thrifty alcoholic I am, used to drink a lot of bud light(bottles) and collect the boxes to make my cat a fortress(ended up being about 15 boxes and took up half a room, he loved it). One day he was in one of the boxes that was well worn an extremely frayed corner that happened to be a hole that was covered by the fluffed out cardboard. I had been calling his name for a few minutes and he hadn't come(he always came, especially when he heard a cabinet since I kept his treats in the cabinet), so I went to his fortress and saw his paw sticking out of the entrance to that box...just his paw. I went over there and he jerked it away and I heard him rustling around and then his paw appeared again. I thought it was just a funny coincidence that he looked to be teasing me like I tease him with my finger. As I reached down to touch it his paw jerked back inside and his whole freaking front leg came out of that frayed corner and he latched onto my arm, it hurt but it was too freaking hilarious to not laugh. He is freakin crazy.
A side note...he still does what ever other cat does when confronted with a mirror...tries to smell it and rub against it, lol. Oh well, so much for that!

I have infact heard, but saddly cannot cite from where, that dolphins are smarter than an average adult human. It isn't intelligence that separates us from the other higher-order animals, it is the fact we have a natural instinct to teach our young, thus creating such an elaborate culture and making better (arguably) use of what nature has given us.

Yeah

When the Intelligent Aliens finally visited earth, we humans are going to get a huge shock when they ignore us as sentient beings, and request to commune to the Dolphin leader, heck maybe to your Parrot

Or when they convene a War Crimes court to prosecute our enslavement of hogs.