African Grey Parrot

🌍 Overview

The African grey parrot is widely regarded as the most intelligent parrot species and among the most cognitively sophisticated of all animals. Native to the dense equatorial forests of West and Central Africa, they live in large flocks and form long-term pair bonds. The research parrot Alex, studied by Dr. Irene Pepperberg for over 30 years, demonstrated a working vocabulary of over 150 words and the ability to understand concepts of color, shape, number, and "same vs. different."

📋 Quick Facts

📜 History

Legal exports moved this species out of Africa in extraordinary numbers: the US Fish and Wildlife Service counted more than 1.5 million wild greys taken from their habitats in the 25 years to 2016. Trapping and forest clearance erased the bird from much of its western range, leaving the largest populations confined to central Africa. On October 2, 2016, at the CITES conference in Johannesburg, delegates voted 95 to 35 with five abstentions to move Psittacus erithacus from Appendix II to Appendix I. The proposal was sponsored jointly by Angola, Chad, Gabon, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, the European Union and the United States. That listing ended commercial international trade in wild-caught birds outright.

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