Bird Toys FAQs
What is the largest governing body of bird trade?
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, with the acronym of CITES, is responsible for administering sanctions and standardizing protocols across borders by suggesting rules for its party members. Since the CITES, commonly known as the Washington convention, is a supranational organization, it cannot enforce its rules via coercion. However, there are eleven stages of protocol for attempt to deter belligerent behavior from individual’s parties. A party is described as either a sub national volunteer organization, a state, a nation, a supranational organization, or an affiliated body. Since all have an equivalent existence as a party, all can be sanctioned. An example of this has been pressure that was brought on Japan for their export of turtle shells. Since the organization is voluntary and has no actual legislation, other than a mission statement. It can offer suggestions, but relies heavily its member organizations to bring legislation into action that sanctions other parties externally to the actual organization. In the Japanese case mentioned above, a trade embargo was enacted in legislation that existed to a certain degree until the shells were removed from export. For that reason, economic influence was exerted and exuded for successful alteration in the face of monetary incentive to do so.
What is the smartest bird and who has set the record?
The African Grey Parrot is generally referred to as the category of bird on the planet. Different birds have different capacities, but trained African Grey Parrots are capable of drawing intelligent connections and solving puzzles. There are a few record setting parrots of this species who are of note. On is N’kisi in New York. This parrot has a recorded vocabulary of 950 words and is capable of conducting conversations and interpreting photos in line with his understood vocabulary conversational method. A comical occurrence occurred when N’kisi met Jane Goodall. He had seen pictures of Ms. Goodall before, but had never met here. When he first met he asked, “Got a chimp?” Some speculators have used this to indicate that the African Grey has a sense of humor, but that is contested in the field of avian experts. Another noteworthy African Grey is Alex. Alex was an acronym for Avian Learning EXperiment. Alex was learning for 30 years from 1977 to 2007. Dr. Pepperberg was his main researcher and they used a model/rival technique of research in which the doctor would speak to an assistant and Alex would chime in by correcting them when they made mistakes. This was the method to evoke cooperation, in a form of reverse psychology. When Alex had a sudden heart attack due to hardened arteries in 2007 their work was seriously set back because Alex was by far the best student. He had learned over 150 words, was at the educational level of a 5 year-old and the emotional status of a 2 year-old. Alex understood complex problems such as zero as well as fabricating items. For example, having never been shown an apple, he called it a banerry which the doctor interpreted to mean a combination between a banana and a cherry, items he had exposure to. Alex understood emotions and could represent anger, fatigue, boredom, and even empathy to a degree as he would attempt to diffuse situations by saying, “I’m sorry.” Pepperberg received a variety of awards for her work and moved on to Harvard with the same program. Pepperberg is famous for her book Alex & Me.
What is clipping a bird’s wings and what are some of the repercussion?
Clipping a bird’s wings in generally done to prevent their flight. The clipping takes place beginning at the six feathers until the most prominent feathers on a scale of one to ten. The feathers are generally cut from full to 1/2 or 1/3. Sometimes the feathers are only slightly clipped to inhibit full flight, but flight is proportional to the wind speed, so this is not a credible objection if the bird is outdoors, because it will simply dive more to have the same control. The dilemma is that the feathers are incredibly critical to the bird’s total physique. Without the proper wings, the bird will become unbalanced and more likely to hurt itself in a fall. Moreover birds lose confidence when their wings are clipped. They will squawk profusely when they find themselves in a situation where they cannot move or make themselves feel safer. The knee jerk reaction for a bird is to flee the sound or act that startles them. By flying away they distance themselves from that which they fear. In this way wing clipping makes the birds less confident and more fearful. Being stuck on a ledge is a common problem with birds that have been trimmed too much, because they can’t fly down or onto a safer perch. For this reason, there are objections to the trimming or clipping of bird’s wings because it limit’s the bird’s most natural instinct to fly, making them fearful and incapacitates them from their most prominent form of exercise. The balance and ability to fly under all but the most brutal clippings also makes the idea of limiting the bird’s flight less credible. Wing clipping is done nonetheless, but it is up to the pet owner and their veterinarian.