Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2020 September 17

= September 17 =

Teach flight tricks to parrot?
Is it possible to teach a parrot (goffin) to do loops and barrel rolls in flight? Or things like flying upside down or backwards? Can't find much online. Thanks. 146.200.128.134 (talk) 04:22, 17 September 2020 (UTC)


 * Despite their intelligence, goffins are not built for acrobatics, and I doubt whether any bird would be able to fly upside down or backwards.--Shantavira|feed me 08:57, 17 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Hummingbirds can fly backwards and upsidedown. --TrogWoolley (talk) 09:32, 17 September 2020 (UTC)
 * I've seen Hummingbirds vanish into thin air, then reappear a moment later 30 metres away. Amazing birds. Try typing 'do a barrel roll' into your parrot, might work. Zindor (talk) 11:26, 17 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Seagulls can fly (or glide) backwards. 146.200.128.134 (talk) 17:13, 17 September 2020 (UTC)
 * But can they do it in high heels? —Tamfang (talk) 01:59, 18 September 2020 (UTC)
 * With enough practice, seagulls can teleport. Mitch Ames (talk) 08:16, 19 September 2020 (UTC)

Generally teaching tricks to an animal that doesn't have a trained animal to imitate involves immediately rewarding any random behaviours that are close to what you want (either by showing praise/affection if the animal is used to that or by food treats). Then you carry on rewarding that behaviour every time it happens, combined with giving a signal (hand gesture, whistle, voice command, etc). This can take a long time, but eventually you will be able to give the signal first and the animal will respond with the "trick". With training chimpanzees and gorillas, you would usually give a signal first to say "now we are starting work", then after the training session is ended, another signal to say "now we can play". This takes a lot of patience, and you have to be very careful not to wear the animal out by endlessly repeating signals, initially you should only use them when you think the animal is going to respond correctly. There's no reason why you can't train a parrot to do flight tricks if it's something they can normally do. Good luck.49.197.49.86 (talk) 23:32, 19 September 2020 (UTC)
 * There is a reason you can't train an elephant to take a leap through a sequence of hoops, or a dolphin to skip rope, which is not for lack of intelligence or insensitivity to rewards. If you know otherwise, you can earn a fortune by training your cat to give a recognizable performance (it does not have to be pitch purrfect) of the Moonlight Sonata. --Lambiam 09:39, 20 September 2020 (UTC)