Meet a feathered fellow who is lighting up the internet with his verbal skills and intelligence: Apollo, an African Gray Parrot.
Apollo lives with his humans, Dalton Mason and Victoria Lacey, in St. Petersburg, Florida.
He is two and a half years old and has feathered relatives as well as human ones; Mason and Lacey also own two white-bellied caiques named Soleil and Ophelia, the couple told Fox News Digital via email.
The internet wants more of Apollo, it seems: the Instagram account apolloandfrens showcases Apollo’s talents and has some 142,000 followers, while a TikTok account for Apollo’s incredible feats of intelligence, ApolloandFrens, has amassed nearly 940,000 followers so far.
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In many of his videos shared on social media, Mason can be seen asking Apollo to identify objects or perform other tasks and gets excited when Apollo gets it right.
And when it doesn’t, the bird always gets a second chance.
Apollo, an African Gray Parrot, is popular on social media, with multiple accounts following his daily life and a growing list of skills and abilities.
(@apolloandfrens)
Apollo can distinguish between metal and glass, clearly pronouncing each word, and he also knows colors, among other abilities.
“We’ve had him since he was eight months old,” Mason told Fox News Digital.
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Working with Apollo and testing his limits is not a joyful pastime for Mason and Lacey. It is a serious and even academic passion.
“We use the ‘model/rival’ training program,” Mason said.
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“It was originally published by the German ethologist Dietmar Todt, but was popularized by Dr. Irene Pepperberg [a scientist noted for her work in field of animal cognition] through her work with Alex, her African Grey.
Mason also said, “Occasionally we’ll use operant conditioning, which is more common for training pets.”
“As a more passive training medium,” Florida’s Dalton Mason said, “we talk to him like he’s a family member.”
(@apolloandfrens)
Operant conditioning, delivering a good outcome in response to a desired behavior, is generally attributed to psychologist BF Skinner, according to SimplyPsychology.org.
Apollo can often be seen on social media receiving the reward of a pistachio nut when he successfully completes a task.
“Parrots are much better at replicating human speech because of their anatomy.”
“As a more passive means of training,” Mason noted, “we talk to him like he’s a member of the house, [almost] as if he were our little son.
Explaining that the abilities of this species are “virtually unknown,” Mason said the pair treat Apollo “like a child” to see “how he stacks up cognitively.”
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HHe added: “These parrots are the same size as crows, have a similar diet and a complex social structure, so it can be assumed that they are just as intelligent.”
“Parrots, however, are much better at replicating human speech because of their anatomy,” he noted.
Dalton Mason (left) trains Apollo, while Apollo looks at the camera on the right. “Apollo is ‘bonded’ with us, even though he prefers Dalton,” Victoria Lacey said of his beloved pet.
(@apolloandfrens)
Parrots speak by “modifying the air flowing over the syrinx to produce sounds,” explains Exotic Direct, an exotic pet insurance company that also shares exotic animal facts on its website.
“The syrinx is located where the trachea divides into the lungs,” the site notes.
The site also notes: “Parrots, particularly African gray parrots and members of the Amazon family, are particularly good at mimicking human words and sounds.”
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“Apollo is ‘linked’ with us, even though he prefers Dalton,” Lacey said.
“He is also very close to our other parrots and many of our friends and family.”
Parrots are not domesticated, unlike dogs and cats, Mason said, “although they naturally live in large flocks with a complex social hierarchy and communication system.”
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“In practice, they don’t ‘fit’ into human social structures or bond as well as dogs,” he said.
“They are much more social than cats, which as solitary animals lack social programming at the genetic level.”
