Wednesday, May 21, 2008

lost parrot tells address to vet

TOKYO — When Yosuke the parrot flew out of his cage and got lost, he did exactly what he had been taught — recite his name and address to a stranger willing to help.

Police rescued the African grey parrot two weeks ago from a neighbor's roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. After spending a night at the station, he was transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital while police searched for clues, local policeman Shinjiro Uemura said. He kept mum with the cops, but began chatting after a few days with the vet.

"I'm Mr. Yosuke Nakamura," the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs.

"We checked the address, and what do you know, a Nakamura family really lived there. So we told them we've found Yosuke," Uemura said.

The Nakamura family told police they had been teaching the bird its name and address for about two years. But Yosuke apparently wasn't keen on opening up to police officials.

"I tried to be friendly and talked to him, but he completely ignored me," Uemura said.

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Now, that's no birdbrain!

1 comment:

Christie said...

That is the coolest bird ever! A former boss of mine, who happens to have been my mom's best friend when they were eight and also is the mother of my husband's best friend, had one of those huge birds that live to be 80...the name escapes me right now. Anyway, they were able to teach Tiki (the bird) to say "Hello" whenever she heard the phone ring. And she'd belt out "Fire!" when she was left alone too long and wanted company.