Why parrots can copy sounds and 'dance' along to music.

Blue and yellow macaw (Ara ararauna)

About parrots

They are roughly 372 species of parrot (Psittacines) found worldwide and are categorized into three super-families, Psittacoidea (True parrots), Cacatuoidea (Cockatoos) and Strigopoidea (New Zealand parrots). Parrots are found in the majority of tropical and subtropical regions of the world with, the greatest diversity being found in South America and Australasia. 

Most parrots eat a diet consisting of seeds, nuts and fruit but some species eat carrion and others such as lorikeets feed on nectar from flowers. 

They are among some of the most intelligent bird species found on the planet, a feature that makes them popular as pets unfortunately, this leads to illegal trapping of the species in the wild which has an impact on species numbers, resulting in some species becoming endangered in the wild.

Rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus)

Why parrots can imitate sounds

Parrots are among the few species that can imitate another species sound and a new study has identified the area of the brain that may be the reason that allows this to occur. 

All birds that sing have areas in the brain that enables the singing ability known as cores but in parrots they are also outer rings called shells. To discover how this shell system functions, a team of scientists focused on gene expression (The process in which information from a gene is used to form a functional gene product) of nine species of parrot.

The study found that parrots have a complex pattern of gene expression in all three parts of their brains, meaning that most of the vocal capabilities of parrots is due to the presence of the shells, this came as a surprise to the scientists as it was previously thought that the shells had no connection to speech. However, it was noted that future research is needed to further examine the exact methods of how imitation is achieved.

The fact that shells were present in the most ancient species of parrot the keas, suggests that these vocalization abilities occurred over 29 million years ago or around the time our ancestors separated from our primate cousins. 

Learning to imitate sounds is not a simple process and requires the ability to recognize musical information, process it and reproduce it which, requires a lot of brain power. Fortunately the shell system in parrots enable these processes to occur allowing the parrot to reproduce sounds.

Kea (Nestor notabilis)

All in the groove
Parrots are also one of the few animals that are able to dance along to the beats of a piece of music. Dancing in parrots is associated with non vocal areas of the shells, supporting the possibility of learning sounds and matching that with their behavior. 
To view the original article please click this link.

As always thanks for taking the time to visit and read my blog, feel free to share any thoughts/comments in the box below and until next time keep it wild!!!!!

There is a reason they issue warnings! Bison attack tourists in Yellowstone.

About bison
As many as 30 million bison (Bison bison) used to roam the plains of North America, unfortunately this had dropped to 1091 in 1889 due to habitat loss and unregulated shooting, numbers have grown since then and now numbers of 500,000 are recorded. Bison can live up to 22 years in the wild, reaching a height of between 6-6.5ft with males weighing up to 2000lbs and can charge at speeds up to 30mph. They are herbivores living on a diet of grasses, constantly roaming in herds consisting of females and young (males only join during breeding). The great plains of America often has severe weather fluctuations with hot summers and freezing winters, the bison combat this forming wallows during hotter periods and forming a thick coat during winter, this coat is so thick that snow can settle on it and not melt.

About Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone was first established as a national park in 1872 to help protect its famous geysers such as Old Faithful, it is located mainly in Wyoming but also extends into neighboring Montana and Idaho spanning a total of 3,468.4sq miles. It is home to Yellowstone lake one of the largest high elevation lakes in America, this sits upon the Yellowstone caldera the largest super-volcano on the continent! This volcano is still active and is what fuels the many geothermal vents in the area. Yellowstone is also the home of many species of animal several of which are endangered or threatened, these include the grizzly bear, elk, wolves and of course the bison, the herd that roams here is the oldest/largest public bison herd in America.
To discover more about Yellowstone National Park please click here to visit their webpage.

What happened?
Every day at Yellowstone National Park rangers issue leaflets notifying the public of the dangers of visiting the park, the warnings are very straightforward for example: do not shout near animals or run towards them. One leaflet even goes as far as featuring a man being gored by a bison and telling visitors to maintain a distance of at least 72 feet from them. Yet these warnings appear to still fail to get people to act appropriately as two people have been injured by bison at Yellowstone within three weeks!
The first person who decided not to heed the warnings, was a 62 year old Australian man who was tossed several times into the air by a bison. Rangers from the park noted that a crowd had formed around the bison getting as close as 5 feet away! Upon proceeding to take photos the bison charged at the man tossing him into the air with its horns, the man was taken to hospital where he was treated and released later the same day.
The second incident involved a 16 year old Taiwanese girl who again did not heed warnings and got too close to a bison to pose for a photo, again she was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.
 A spokesperson for the park mentioned how people forget that the animals are wild and will behave as such stating that 'the temptation is there when the bison looks calm'.
More and more people visit Yellowstone National Park every year and it is incidents like this that force the park ranger to have to protect wildlife and police tourists which is why warnings are so frequently issued, the problem is that people continue to ignore them.

My Views
I feel ever more constantly that we are becoming a society which firmly believes that in scenarios where serious injury could happen, that we think it won't happen to us and this is why incidents like this occur so frequently. It does not even have to be animal related, for example imagine a person in a car, their mobile phone just went off with a message, now we all know what we should do which is either pullover in a safe place or wait till you arrive at your destination to read the message but maybe this person has texted and drove before and was fine or perhaps they have not done it before but the road is not busy and they know what they are doing (it won't happen to me) and then in that moment whilst they are distracted a kid runs out and the inevitable happens. We all faced with a multitude of warnings every day and most are probably ones that are not all that significant in our daily lives but those like the ones featured here that affect not only yourself but others too and carry a potential high risk factor should always be heeded, it may not happen to you but what if it did? These incidents often carry serious injury or death, what happens when you sustain major fractures and can't work or worse if you died? Nearly every day I read in the news about someone who was killed/seriously hurt driving irresponsibly or in an animal attack and what annoys me is that they could all be avoided if common sense prevailed.
It is important to remember whenever you visit an area where animals are wild to treat them with respect and maintain a safe distance from them, if you want a close up shot then buy a camera with a telescopic lens that will allow you to zoom in and take that great photo whilst staying safe and if you want that selfie how about with a statue or model instead? At least you will be walking away with a set of pictures that you can share with family and friends, instead of a broken camera and spending your holiday in a hospital or worse not coming home at all.

As always thanks for taking the time to read my blog, please share any of your thoughts in the comments section below and until next time keep it wild!!!!!