Ambassadors who fly between both worlds
Through our birds, we can instill in others the importance of being at one with the natural world. We can use our close association with certain birds in our home to show how birds have an intelligent awareness that equals our own. They are therefore, as deserving of respect as any human being - more so, some might say, since they are at one with their world. We are not.
We force our birds to live in an unnatural environment; our destruction of their habitat compels birds in the wild to adapt to man-made landscapes - or die out. Our own pet birds can help to re-establish the bond that should exist between nature and man. They can be ambassadors who fly between both worlds.
We can educate our children and our friends' children by showing them the intelligent, thinking actions of our parrots. We can explain that they have the same emotions as us, the same ability to think through problems and revise their behaviour accordingly. They have good cognitive abilities (are able to know and perceive many things).
They recognise individual people as readily as we do, just as they recognise individual members of their flock. Some species of birds which breed in immense colonies can recognise their own chicks among hundreds or thousands of others - just as we can identify our friends and acquaintances.
Except for the ability to create complicated objects which are of no use to other species (and are often extremely harmful), we are in no way superior to birds or other animals. When we learn this lesson, we will accept that man must not be allowed to dominate the universe.
Because birds live in the homes of so many of us, we can learn to communicate with them, and they with us. This is already happening in hundreds of thousands of homes. Pet birds must not exist solely to please their owners, but to demonstrate that real, intelligent communication between humans and other animals is possible.
Because parrots can mimic, they can learn some of our language. Because they are intelligent and highly social creatures, they can learn to communicate with us in our own language, to a limited degree. Alas, very very few humans have ever learned to communicate with animals in their language. Again, this shows how in some respects birds are superior to us.
They deserve our respect; they are not automatons; they are beings covered in feathers who learn, during their often short lives, how to use and perfect many skills. They also give immense pleasure to countless humans. Alas, comparatively few humans give joy to birds.
The most important legacy that any human can leave is not (unlike birds and animals) its genes in the form of another generation, but to sow the seeds of love, respect and understanding for the natural world in today's young people. Unless we do that, most of the world will become uninhabitable for the majority of its life forms.
Michael Reynolds, founder of The World Parrot Trust, coined the phrase: "If man can save the parrots, he can yet save himself." This is not a glib catch-phrase. It is the truth. The status of birds in the wild (more so than mammals because they are more readily observed), is an indicator of the health and viability of natural environments. This is especially true of parrots; being beautiful, even spectacular, conspicuous and widespread, in many areas they are considered to be the flagship conservation species.
Start to look at yourself as an ambassador who has important knowledge to communicate. Much of this information can be spread with the help of what are probably the most charismatic birds in existence.. - the parrots. Your parrots or your love for parrots can take on an even greater meaning. Too many parrots have suffered at the hand of man. Some of them can now share in our reversal of those attitudes which have brought man to a critical point in his history. As a race, we have to learn again to revere nature and everything natural. We have to turn away from the consumer society which is consuming nature, leaving behind it an accelerating scale of extinctions. We MUST change. You and your birds can be part of that revolution.
From "The Loving Care Of Pet Parrots by Rosemary Low"
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