Polly Says What?! Ought to Parrots Testify at Homicide Trials?

Ornithologists are skeptical as to whether Bud, an African gray parrot allegedly witnessed a murder in Michigan in 2015, can give reliable testimony or oral testimony in a court case.

It’s not because African gray parrots are not intelligent – birds can be taught to do simple math, speak with enormous vocabulary, and demonstrate impressive conclusions. Rather, it’s unclear whether Bud is repeating a conversation from the murder itself, or whether he heard it on TV, on the radio, or from another time in his life, experts told Live Science.

“We don’t know where this conversation might be coming from,” said Erin Colbert-White, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., Who works with African gray parrots. [Pretty Bird: Images of a Clever Parrot]

Parrot talk

The murder case, which is attracting national attention, involves 45-year-old Martin Duram, who was found dead from five gunshot wounds in May 2015. His wife, Glenna Duram, 48, is a suspect, according to the Detroit Free Press.

The Duram family owned Bud at the time of the murder, but Martin Duram’s ex-wife Christine Keller is now taking care of the parrot. Several weeks after Duram’s death, Keller heard Bud speak in both male and female voices as if he were conversing, the Free Press reported.

The parrot said in a man’s voice, “Get out,” followed by the voice of the woman who said, “Where should I go?” The man’s voice replied, “Don’t shoot,” reported the Free Press.

Keller alerted the prosecutor on the case, who said he was unaware of a precedent allowing a parrot to participate in a trial, but he would be looking into whether Bud could serve as admissible evidence, the Free Press reported.

Star witness?

Bud can no doubt handle words, but experts doubt that this feathered chat can provide reliable testimony or evidence in a trial.

“Basically, it’s about whether a parrot can learn a sentence it has only heard once,” says Irene Pepperberg, research fellow at the Department of Psychology at Harvard University and author of “Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot discovered a hidden world of animal intelligence – and formed a deep connection in the process ”(Collins Publishers, 2008).

The story goes on

“The general answer is ‘no’ because it takes a lot of practice for the bird to reproduce the sounds of the English language,” Pepperberg told Live Science in an email. “A bird may learn a single word quickly, but only if it already has the specific sounds in its repertoire.”

For example, Alex, also a gray parrot, learned the word “carrot” after a training session, but he already knew the words “key” and “parrot”, which probably made it easier to learn the new word, she said. Plus, entire conversations are even harder to learn if you’ve only heard them once, Pepperberg said.

“The only evidence that a stressed bird can learn a sentence once heard comes from [the deceased] Nobel laureate Konrad Lorenz, “she said.” His cockatoo was terrified of a chimney sweep and then shouted ‘The sweeper is coming!’ when it saw someone all in black. “

It was possible, “but quite unlikely,” that Bud overheard and repeated the conversation from the murder, said Pepperberg. [The 5 Smartest Non-Primates on the Planet]

Flashbulb memory

In humans, a traumatic event like the Kennedy assassination or 9/11 can strengthen a memory. Some experts call this “flash bulb memory,” said Colbert-White.

It’s unclear if parrots have flash bulb memories, but when they do, Bud perhaps remembered that conversation vividly because it happened right before the murder, she said.

In addition, the Free Press reported that it took the bird several weeks to utter this conversation, “which is actually comparable to parrots adding a new vocalization to their repertoire,” Colbert-White said.

However, the origin of the conversation could remain a mystery, she said.

This isn’t the first time a parrot has helped solve a murder. A man was beaten and killed in Dallas on Christmas Eve 2001. His cockatoo (a species of parrot) attacked the attacker and drew blood that landed on the wall. DNA analysis, along with other clues in the case, helped convict the killer, one of the Texas man’s former employees at his pool company, according to BBC News.

Original article on Live Science.

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