Conservation efforts have apparently allowed these iconic parrots to develop different dialects from their wild relatives. “I would say I first noticed about a year after I had been working with the parrots”, Ms Martínez said in email. Because parrots have a large repertoire of sounds, Ms Martínez and her collaborators analysed two contact call variants, which all of the parrots produce. “This is one way in which dialects emerge in nature and we believe this is what happened in Río Abajo”, Ms Martínez continued in email. “This was the last refuge of the wild parrot”, Ms Martínez said.

Source: Forbes October 31, 2020 20:48 UTC