Archive for the ‘birds’ Category

Not only do they look like total rock stars but the cockatiel has the laid back rocker-tude to match. Often thought of as a mellow bird to keep close, cockatiels make wonderful pets and not only to look at but to love. Beautifully adorned with bright colors and lovingly always ready to be your best friend if you are lucky enough to keep a cockatiel as a pet you know exactly why The Etsy Herd chose Cockatiels for this week’s roundup.

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By now most Pawesome readers have probably heard of Alex, the African Grey parrot who was the ongoing subject of animal psychologist Dr. Irene Pepperberg. Alex was born in 1976 and worked with Pepperberg for almost his entire 31 years. He died in 2007.

Pepperberg’s work with Alex focused on solving complex language and math problems, two areas previously thought to require a big old primate brain. Instead, Pepperberg’s research indicated that Alex was capable of using basic reasoning and language, and that his intelligence was on par with dolphins and great apes.  Read the rest of this entry »

My friend Peter sent me to a website about his neighborhood, Idora Park, Oakland, where I stumbled upon this souvenir from the Idora Park Carniva featuring Mlle. Marzella and her troupe of performing cockatoos. Curious about the woman behind the photo, I did a little Googling to find out more about her. It turns out Mademoiselle M was a world famous traveling act, known and loved far and wide on the Vaudeville circuit for her ability to train birds. According to an article from 1926 in The Sydney Mail, her birds’ talents included “Flying through lighted hoops, riding bicycles, riding a tightrope, manning a ship in a supposed gale, and many more wonderful feats.”

According to a recent article in Oakland Magazine, Marzella and her birds (which numbered 100, and also included magpies, parrots, eagles, ravens, pigeons, and others) were a star act in Idora Park from 1905-1910. Back in the day, the neighborhood (you might now know it as Temescal), was a 17-acre “trolley park,” which also included a bear pit (ugh), a merry go round, a Barrel of Fun, and other theme park attractions. Marzella’s white cockatoos were apparently the most impressive of the birds: “Staging a military battle, the feathered fighters lit a toy cannon and ‘shot’ an enemy combatant, who fell down ‘dead.’ The victorious soldiers then placed the body on a stretcher, maneuvered it into a toy hearse and drove away.”

With so many pet stories around the web each week it’s hard to keep up. Table Scraps is our weekly roundup of memorable pet news around the internet.

• So apparently this pooch knows calculus but considering I am the type of person who can’t figure out what to tip a waiter without the help of thirty of my friends plus a calculator I’m not sure I read these math words correctly.  (Dogster)
• A zorse is a zorse of course, of course!  (Daily Mail)
• The National Cat Awards 2012 have kicked off with a rowr! (Huffington Post)
• I know it’s wrong to steal but factor in the quote, “He’s an animal lover, not a hater,” plus “homeless” plus “cowboy hat” and it’s kind of hard to want to scold him. (NY Daily News)
• Dog-ton Abbey (jezebel)
• Is it even a little bit possible that this Parrot put out the Craigslist ad itself?  Hmm?  Awww, come on…please? (CBS Los Angeles)

Image: Drumsara