Parrot Drives Robotic Buggy 182
grrlscientist writes "Proving that robots aren't just for people any longer, an African grey parrot, Pepper, has learned to drive a robot that was specially designed for him. Pepper, whose wings are clipped to preventing him from flying around his humans' house and destroying their things, now manipulates the joystick on his riding robot to guide it to where ever he wishes to go. This robotic 'bird buggy' was the brainchild of his human companion, Andrew Gray, a 29-year-old electrical and computer engineering graduate student at the University of Florida."
ironic... (Score:4, Insightful)
...that the same human who had the birds wings clipped so it can't move has had to build him a fucking go kart so he's able to move around again.
Fuck you, Andrew Gray, and the horse you rode in on. IF you haven't clipped its hooves at the knee, that is!
Re:ironic... (Score:4, Informative)
You can report his site as it's google hosted on the grounds of cruelty to animals.
Re:ironic... (Score:5, Insightful)
For the sake of argument, is it really that cruel? It doesn't seem as bad to me as docking a puppy's tail; primary feathers grow back, don't they?
Mind you, a friend of mine had a beautiful white parrot when I was younger and he never had much trouble with it breaking his stuff. Perhaps instead of altering a pet to one's home it's better to alter the home to suit the pet.
Re:ironic... (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember having to ferret-proof a house, I can only imagine what a pain in the ass it would have been if the critter had been able to fly too.
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Why do you say greys are more destructive than other parrots? I would think macaws would be much more destructive. I have owned greys and also a blue and gold macaw and they seemed about equally destructive to me. You just have to parrot proof your house as much as possible. From what I have seen I think a Kea is much more destructive than most parrots. And they are omnivorous too! They used to be killed for killing sheep!
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So... don't bring one into your house to live with you?
Re:ironic... (Score:4, Insightful)
"So cruel to birds" he says munching on his KFC. "Pass me another bucket of wings!"
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"So cruel to birds" he says munching on his KFC. "Pass me another bucket of wings!"
Hey, those fuckers were deep-fried humanely, you insensitive clod!
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Re:ironic... (Score:5, Informative)
Just FYI, guys, it's not cruelty. You don't actually cut their wings, just their feathers, and you have to keep cutting them because they grow back all the time.
But, I do agree that this is totally unnecessary. Parrots are very smart, can be trained, and are fucking birds - totally capable of moving around without a crappy golf cart. Don't clip him, just train him to not do whatever it is he was doing wrong. Plus they have beautiful plumage, the Norwegian Blue. Mine's been really quiet since I got him, though. I think he's pining for the fjords.
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To be honest that sounds like having cats inside the house their whole life. They will become depressed and bored because of the inability to be the animal they are. I believe that our view of the cats in general is based on a slightly false impression. Some may even regress into ritualistic behavior akin to caged animals. It's perplexing to see how the cats can brighten up and become completely different beings when they have a possibility to come and go as they feel like and be what they truly are.
To witn
Re:ironic... (Score:4, Funny)
Just FYI, guys, it's not cruelty. You don't actually cut their wings, just their feathers
Huh.
That might explain why I got fired from Petco...
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"Plus they have beautiful plumage, the Norwegian Blue"
Aren't those the ones that are always pining for the fjords?
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If you were to keep a dog in handcuffs all the time so it couldn't run, I'm pretty sure it would be considered cruel despite causing no physical damage (except lack of exercise, which clipped wings will almost certainly also cause).
Re:ironic... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not the wings that are clipped, just some feathers to keep it from hurting itself inside the house.
We can disagree about whether or not any animal should be kept by humans, but clipping the feathers of a parrot so it doesn't hurt itself flying around the house don't really qualify as enormously cruel. Certainly not as "cruel" as forcibly neutering a dog or cat. Probably not as cruel as riding a horse.
There is an argument about the lifespan of the parrot, though. He's going to live on average about 20% longer as a pet than he would as a free bird. We could ask the parrot whether he'd rather have some feathers clipped and live in a safe home with abundant food and no predators (plus a very cool scooter) or in the wild where his life will be much shorter, but he's not talking.
Or maybe he is talking, since he's a parrot...
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I believe the justification for clipping a parrot's flight feathers is to prevent him from escaping not from flying into things. Greys at least are pretty damn smart and fly into things about as often as most of us walk into walls. Just don't let him fly when he's drunk.
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You may find this surprising, but all of the places in which my birds lived for years had windows and glass doors and there was not a single time that any even came close to flying into them. They are a lot smarter than you give them credit for. They don't fly into windows and glass doors for the same reason that you don't walk into them. They see them, know that they are there and that they are solid. Having said that, I don't tend to make any great effort to keep the glass clean.
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When a bird is in a panic, it will forget that the window glass is there -- even if it's consciously aware (under normal circumstances) of that glass. When startled, they will reflexively launch and head for a visually open passage. They may or may not gather their wits fast enough to remember it's actually a window. Fly first, navigate later. This reflex probably makes them harder most predators to catch, but it's also exploitable and many (human) hunters have used the startle reflex of birds to get them t
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All birds are not the same. Some of them are probably not very bright. I've owned birds for years and I can't recall one being startled as you describe. Even when he meets a new person who comes to visit. Perhaps if you could be more specific about the particular species of bird and a more exact circumstance which could cause such a panic.
Most of the time glass is not truly transparent. Not indistinguishable from air. If you clean your glass every day very thoroughly with a high quality glass cleaner it mig
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The bird I had to coddle in a towel until it recovered from its collision-induced dizziness is a conure. I've also had to do this with a cockatiel for the same reason, but I am well aware that they just aren't all that bright.The conure, however, is quite intelligent and does not seem to be suffering any long-term effects. He had a bald patch over one eye for a couple of months though.
The event that startled the conure (and two parakeets that were also out and I had to chase down) was the wind-induced slamm
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...with abundant food...
Now here's something that irks me, although not by fault of the owners/companions. I have had several budgies. One vet told me that standard issue parakeet food is like Big Macs for parakeets, i.e. very fatty, unhealthy and hardly nutritious. So actually, while I thought that I was feeding my parakeets properly, I actually wasn't.
I never felt guilty for keeping parakeets. When properly trained, they are very social and intelligent and they appear quite happy for your companionship. However, in the end it a
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African greys do [pbs.org].
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In fairness, we have an African Grey that does not have his wings clipped, (I am generally opposed to clipping wings) and when he gets going he's as much a hazard to himself as to our things. (Things are replaceable. It's not something we worry about a lot. But we are concerned that he will injure himself.) He's actually reluctant to fly, preferring to be carried around instead.
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Well, like us, they are all individuals. My greys were superb fliers and definitely prefered flying to walking. They only walked when the distances were very short. although sometimes they just seem to feel like walking instead of flying. I never saw them get into any trouble due to their flying everywhere instead of walking. We hurt ourselves too when we first learn to walk, but our parents don't restrict us to wheelchairs or ask us to crawl everywhere instead of walking upright. Of course I'm sure parrots
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We used to have a cockatoo that would run around on the floor chasing the dogs. They were terrified of him. He was gonzo insane, not just for that but for many things. We finally gifted him to a local wildlife refuge.
I read a story once of a parrot that was killed by a hawk right on the owner's back porch, so yes, birds are generally safer inside.
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He was gonzo insane
Yes, you already said he was a cockatoo.
Ah, I see you know Cockatoos.
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mod up...
Agreed, I think it's pretty lousy to have these types of animals as pets--there is a reason birds go crazy when left alone in cages, they are too intelligent and not psychologically suited for domesticated life. Just because it's small enough to not seriously injure humans does not mean it's acceptable or suited to become a pet.
Cats & Dogs have been domesticated over hundreds/thousands of generations... even today there are breeds of dogs that are clearly not suited for living mostly indoors--
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It could be argued that the domestication process itself is cruel. Almost a form of genocide. Enslaving not just a single animal, but an entire species, just so we can have the living equivalent of a teddy bear.
Ask yourself which you would prefer: being left alone in the wilderness with no food and having to worry about bears and wolves and other predators or being fed and taken care of by someone who really cares about you and wants you to be happy. How long would you even survive alone in the forest? Once
Re:ironic... (Score:4, Interesting)
> Cats & Dogs have been domesticated over hundreds/thousands of generations
Cats are an interesting case in that, it appears that little domestication was needed. On the whole domesticated cats and their wild counterparts are quite similar.
Turns out, our species had some very convinent properties for co-habitation.
Their meat is not generally considered good, even amongst cultures where there is less taboo about eating a variety of animals. They, are under no delusion that we are prey.
They don't eat much of what we do, only eating fairly freshly killed meat and occasional roughage. In fact, they mainly kill and eat the rodents that try to eat our food stores, and keep them away.
On top of that, they are agreeably soft, purr, and stay mostly out of the way as they sleep 18 hours a day. Few places are safer to sleep than around us, and I bet that has been true since before we lived indoors. For cats, this was a perfect match.
The average lifespan of a wild cat is only a couple of years. Companion cats can live upwards of 20. They hardly got the shit end of the stick.
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Every time somebody whines like you just did I will eat the closest analog to the species they are whining about, that I can lay hands on.
Tonight it's going to be quail - 4 of 'em - and you only have yourself to blame.
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Fuck the rabbit and the rocket he rode in on.
Protip: if you put the tourniquet on and leave it there for an hour or so before removing your limb, it should be numb by the time you do. You'll want to have all the incredients at hand before you start, because going shopping with a severed stump could get ackward. Finally, it's unlikely that eating your own flesh can give y
Re:ironic... (Score:5, Interesting)
...that the same human who had the birds wings clipped so it can't move has had to build him a fucking go kart so he's able to move around again.
Fuck you, Andrew Gray, and the horse you rode in on. IF you haven't clipped its hooves at the knee, that is!
The bird is well looked after and you can tell that just by looking at it's feathers. The very fact that the bird knows how to *drive* the buggy means that it is getting enough attention to be healthy and the fact that his wings are clipped means that the bird has appropriate flight power for being indoors - from which we can deduce that the bird is completely domesticated and thinks of it's cage as it's own 'room' - so it also has it's own territory.
From the video the bird only flapped it's wings to maintain it's balance, that means the bird *chooses* to play with the cart. Parrots are fast, manuverable birds, and just because it's wings are clipped doesn't mean it can't fly - it just means that it won't get out of control, frustrated, scared and hurt itself inside a house. If it was a wild bird then you might have a point. The guy owns a parrot, that's a 25-60 year commitment to a pet, so before you go judging the guy ask yourself if you could do the same thing.
Honestly settle down with the political correctness, it's far more offensive than a parrot with it's wings clipped.
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its!
Sorry I, was. in a Hurrie,
Re:ironic... (Score:5, Informative)
Grey's are large birds, too large to really fly in an average house. It may not be able to fly between rooms due to narrow hallways and clutter anyway.
I have a couple of smaller birds, fully flighted and they're not really happy about needing to fly to chase you. Often they'll scream at you instead.
Also you guys might temper your anger realizing that wing clipping is temporary. You clip their wings once a month or so, because all you're doing is cutting the outermost 4 flight feathers back. These fall out and grow back (trimmed or not). For most birds this is enough to make flying very difficult.
Re:ironic... (Score:5, Insightful)
If they're too big for the average house, don't KEEP them in an average house.
And how is it being temporary any better, that just means you're doing it more often.
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Cutting my hair does not impede my primary means of locomotion.
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Usually just one wing.
Re:ironic... (Score:5, Informative)
Actually greys have no problem at all flying in the average house. I have had greys in 400-600 sqft apartments and they can fly just fine through all the different rooms. Also a grey can walk nearly as fast as that cart can move. In addition to wings they do have perfectly good legs and can cross an average sized bedroom in seconds on foot. After having kept clipped birds and birds with full flight feathers I would never keep them clipped ever again. I love when a bird can fly to my shoulder whenever he wants and it's such a wonderful ability that they were born with. Even if they can only fly indoors I still think it's better than nothing.
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no it is more like cutting the nails on the human. the feather like hair and fingernails are dead tissue, they grow back and it does not hurt the bird where cutting the finger tips off oh the human as you suggested.
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You can cut the tips of people's fingers off and they'll grow back
Wow, what a fucking moron.
I for one... (Score:2)
Welcome our new Robotic Parrot Overlords!
Arms Race (Score:4, Informative)
You know what this means right?
Cats with roller skates.
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No, like this http://i.imgur.com/suzSY.gif [imgur.com] from http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/14edxt/so_a_friend_of_a_friend_made_this_for_his_parrot/c7ckm1t [reddit.com] ... ;)
no such luck (Score:5, Funny)
I tried t get my Norwegian Blue to drive a buggy but it just sits there and does nothing.
Re:no such luck (Score:4, Funny)
It's merely pinin' for a Ford!
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One feature I really like about this cart... (Score:2)
I wish my car had a toilet in the driver seat so I could crap freely while driving around.
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A thousand times over!
Next step... (Score:2)
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Step 1: Clip bird's wings so he can't fly.
Step 2: Build bird a quadricopter.
Step 3:
Step 4: Oh god the birds are attacking!
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(slaps forehead) I KNEW I shouldn't have armed the quadricopter.
primary use for print newspaper today (Score:2)
And here you see the primary use to which print newspapers are put today. All the dog owners and other pet owners use it to collect their pets' bowel movements.
How about dogs driving full size cars? (Score:3)
Forget parrots in buggies. What about dogs in real cars?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20614593 [bbc.co.uk]
99% sure this is not a hoax.
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http://drivingdogs.co.nz/ [drivingdogs.co.nz] as well.
I was hoping this would be about perl 6 but.. (Score:2)
this is COOL! And really cute too!
My bird wants one (Score:2)
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Yeah, watching the video the bird wasn't really using it for transport, it was playing with it more.
Bud The African Grey (Score:2)
Another worthless opinion.... (Score:2)
Second, Andrew must not have heard the old saying about show business--"never work with kids or animals". . . .
Awesome! (Score:2)
I would love to integrate a Kinect sensor into this design and change the control scheme a bunch....
Re:Awesome (Score:5, Insightful)
It's like having a 2 to 5 year old that lives longer than you do.
That said, they are damn smart birds.
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Is that really your dog in the video? I keep parrots (although not at the moment) and they are my favorite pets, but I actually think a dog driving a car tops the parrot driving a cart. It would be hilarious if dogs could get driver licenses and drive around everywhere.
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Well, if we can send chimps on space missions, then we can surely put a parrot on Mars to get the rovers a bit more lively.
Re:Awesome (Score:5, Funny)
When the parrot cuts you off in traffic, does he give you... the bird?
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When the parrot cuts you off in traffic, does he give you... the bird?
No, rather obviously he flips you the human.
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My conure died. I'd get a parrot if I wasn't such a short-timer myself. Maybe adopt, but people are such idiots, I'm afraid I'd get a broken bird.
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I can't believe this made it onto Slashdot, but this bad ass motherfucker in his bitch mobile didn't:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20614593 [bbc.co.uk]
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Like, if someone broke his legs and build him a joystick wheelchair and posted the video, oh I am sure he would be oh so thankful.
I can see both sides. Without his wings being clipped he would never be allowed outside, and escape would be a constant worry. Caged birds are dead meat on the outside.
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Do keep in mind this isn't a finch though. Greys are attached to their family.
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One is permanently breaking the legs of a creature and the other is clipping something that can grow back... If you somehow think those two events are in any way the same, I feel sorry for you.
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Re:Ummm... yes. A very resounding yes. (Score:4, Interesting)
...Yeah. Yeah it is. Are you fucking retarded?!? Like no, seriously... are you mentally handicapped.
Anger aside, this is actually a very valid, important thing to mention.
Case in point - a few months ago, a 17-year-old autistic boy was struck and killed by a car. it was 2 AM, and he was sitting in the middle of the street just past a low hill, which made him impossible for the driver to see until it was too late.
When asked why their autistic son was sitting in the middle of a public street at 2 o' clock in the morning, the parents responded, "we always let him do what he wants."
Incidentally, the parents are attempting to sue the driver for - brace yourselves - negligence.
Re:Fuck the owner (Score:5, Insightful)
Man, lotta PETA supporters or something on /. today. Are you against neutering cats and dogs too?
1. It's not a "free bird". A free bird would be one that's outside in the trees. This is a domesticated bird in a house. But I assume you just threw the "free" part in as an emotional word of some sort to get people onto your side anyway.
2. Clipping the wings is exactly NOTHING like breaking the legs. Since it's only temporarily trimming the end feathers, it's more akin to clipping a cat's nails. It stops the cat from gripping the ground when running, so therefore it must be cruel. If a bird that large were allowed to fly about freely inside, it'd likely do more damage to itself than to objects.
3. Before you even think about talking about declawing, just stop with that horribly incorrect analogy already. Clipped feathers grow back, removing the top knuckle of the cat's paws doesn't. And no, my cat isn't declawed, that's cruel.
4. You're an idiot, and god help you if you ever own a pet.
I just took a cone off my cat from him having had surgery. Are advocating that I should have left the cone off and let him chew away at his stitches instead, because the cone isn't natural, and hinders him?
Not all things people do to pets are for the sake of cruelty. In fact, I would argue that the vast, VAST majority of things we do for pets is because we love them, and it's better for them.
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If I had Mod points you would be +1 obvious :)
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The issue is that some animals are smarter than others, just as you might get bored and actually feel mental anxiety if you were locked in a colourless room for 24hrs of the day different treatment can have different effects on different animals.
Fish wont care if they're in a tank, or the sea (assuming the tank is of adequate size, cleanliness, etc.) because they don't have the mental capacity to know any different.
Dogs are often fine stuck inside a house for a few hours, as they naturally sleep a lot durin
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Exactly, this is like clipping your kitties claws so it doesn't turn your furniture into confetti. Animal experts will tell you that allowing your cat to have sharp claws will promote its self confidence (knowing it can defend itself) but also promotes damage to furniture, injury to people and the spread of a number of diseases like cat-scratch fever (yeah, I know the album, but really there is a disease too.)
If you have a large parrot, it can do a significant amount of damage, they are strong birds with bi
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Clipping the flight feathers doesn't actually stop them from flying. It just makes it very difficult for them to gain altitude. Clipped birds can still make short flights or flutter safely to the ground from any height, but they also can't fly into a ceiling fan if they get spooked.
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To be fair, the vast majority of pet parrots, not just in the US, but in the world are raised by humans not by their parents. And usually their parents weren't raised in the wild either. So that ship has already sailed. If the parents decide to breed (and it's not like you can force them) those babies cannot be shipped back to Africa or South America and set free in the wild. Only a small percentage of them would survive at all without instruction from wild parents. I think that would be more cruel. It is a
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You've evidently never been to South Florida, where there are enough escaped parrots flying around to fill a Hitchcock movie.
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Those are the survivors. Likely a small percentage. Also, I used to live in Central Florida (space coast area), which is nearly as warm, and I never once saw an escaped parrot flying around. So what about the parrots that are kept outside of South Florida?
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Those are the survivors. Likely a small percentage.
Maybe, but then, citation needed.
Also, I used to live in Central Florida (space coast area), which is nearly as warm, and I never once saw an escaped parrot flying around.
I've lived in both Indialantic and Fort Lauderdale. The latter was noticeably warmer.
So what about the parrots that are kept outside of South Florida?
They migrate to South Florida? (But then, to be fair, citaton needed.)
(Honestly? I'm not really arguing with you, I'm just sort of being obstreporous.)
The difference is semantics here, though (Score:2, Informative)
Don't get your panties in a knot unless you know more.
Well, I'm not GP but I am a parrot owner so I'd like to "get my panties knot".
Removing a parrot's main form of movement is comparable to keeping a dog on a leash in one corner of the house, all the time. What's cruel is removing their ability to fly and after that it's just semantics whether you clipped their wings or feathers. Removing a parrot's ability to fly and forcing them to move only where human decides they should move, when human decides they should move there, is a horrible thing to do to animals
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Mauled by a bear? Have some fucking perspective will you?
Re:Cruelty to animals (Score:5, Informative)
With larger birds such as African Grey's, there is a really high risk of injury to the bird if they are allowed to grow up flying inside a house. Young birds do not understand glass for instance, and will attempt to fly into it, ultimately doing harm to themselves. To offset this, the non-permanent wing clipping is employed to prevent them from taking flight. This doesn't prevent gliding, however, so they can still leap safely off ledges to the floor to get around. Once they're older, you have to take into account that the nearly or fully grown bird has never flown, so you keep clipping the wings as they don't know how to use them.
I've never owned a Parrot but I grew up with one and my parents opted to not clip his wings. The net result was a lot of snapped feathers and a bird with neurological damage from running into things full tilt. Not pretty.
Re:Cruelty to animals (Score:4, Funny)
Heaven forbid you have a giant mirror in your house. We had parakeets that would go ape shit over the other birds and try to fly to them. We ended up clipping their feathers just so they wouldn't hurt themselves on the mirror.
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Interesting, I had parakeets (one smart, one quite stupid) that would fly up to the floor-to-ceiling mirror and hover there for a few seconds before turning away. Not once did they run into the mirror. Unlike a window, flying toward a mirror will produce the appearance of an imminent collision.
We'd also confuse the cats with the same kind of mirrors (different room). Use a laser pointer, at some distance from the mirror. The cat will lock on to the dot and not notice that there is also a dot in the mirrored
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That is nothing at all like my experience with greys. What kind of parrot did your parents have?
As far as young birds getting their first flight feathers it is a good idea to be extra cautious with windows and doors at that time. Curtains/blinds or just making sure that the glass is very dirty will help a lot at that time. It won't take long before they realize the glass is solid. Letting them explore the windows and doors on foot with their beaks before they learn to fly is also probably a good idea. Of co
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It has sensors to detect when it has bumped into something and automatically retreats. It senses when it is approaching a wall and prevents forward movement. When the parrot was removed it used its camera to locate the "docking station" and navigate its own way there.
Sure, it can be controlled, but it does its own thing too.
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It autonomously drives itself home to charge.