Genius parrot amazes the internet with his intelligence by identifying different objects correctly

The internet has been keeping an eye out for this wonder bird for a while now as he has gained a sizeable amount of fan followers across social media platforms. Meet Apollo, possibly the most famous African grey parrot on the internet, who is known for his astonishing verbal abilities and display of intelligence. Apollo resides with his human friends Dalton Mason and Victoria Lacey in St. Petersburg, Florida and is currently 2 years old. Mason and Lacey regularly share Apollo's shenanigans, along with his fellow feathered buddies, two white-bellied caiques named Soleil and Ophelia.

According to an interview with Fox News, Mason shared how Apollo has been with them since he was eight months old. Mason and Lacey operate a popular Instagram account named @apolloandfrens dedicated to their birds and they have amassed over 712,000 followers as of August 2023. They also share Apollo, Soleil and Ophelia's videos on their TikTok page, which has over 2 million followers. Apollo, the special parrot, has been giving a startling display of his feats of intelligence and many talents.

In one of their popular videos on Instagram, which is titled "This bird is a genius," Apollo gets asked by Mason to identify several objects and the materials they are made out of. The parrot gets treated with a reward of pistachio every time he gives the right answers to Mason's questions, but if he gets it wrong, Apollo gets a second chance. Apollo is capable of clearly pronouncing words like glass, block, plant, paper, bell and much more. The witty parrot even recognizes different colors and materials, such as metal and his favorite Mario toy, which the bird refers to as "Wario."

However, it is more than just a hobby for Mason and Lacey to train Apollo. They continue to test the parrot's intelligence and they do it with serious scholarly passion. "We use the 'model/rival' program of training," Mason told the outlet. "It was originally published by German ethologist Dietmar Todt but was popularized by Dr. Irene Pepperberg through her work with Alex, her African grey parrot. Occasionally we'll use operant conditioning, which is more common for training pets." As a more passive means of training, Mason and Lacey talk to Apollo as if he were a member of the household.

"These parrots are equal in size to crows, have a similar diet and a complex social structure — so one can assume they are about as intelligent. Parrots, however, are much better at replicating human speech due to their anatomy," he noted. "Apollo is 'bonded' with us, though he prefers Dalton," Lacey added. "He is also very close with our other parrots and many of our friends and family." Mason reveals that parrots, in practice, do not "fit in with human social structures or bond as well as dogs." "They are far more social than cats, which as solo animals lack the social programming at the genetic level," Mason concluded.

Every single person who has come across Apollo's videos has ended up dropping their jaws in awe. Countless others have left flabbergasted comments under the parrot's videos. @wannabesohail joked: "Ask him 'Is The Afterlife Real' or 'What Ghosts Are Made Of?'" @nikolebrowniv wrote: "I would love to have one. But I'm not capable of properly caring for them just yet." @suzanneschofield11 commented: "Ask him the lottery numbers for this week, please he's unbelievable." Apollo and his human friends never fail to wow the netizens on various social media outlets as Apollo continues his learning process, almost like a real human being.