- Four-year-old Apollo secured the record after successfully identifying 12 items
- The African grey boasts a whopping 2.8 million followers on TikTok
When it comes to TikTok stars, famous faces such as Addison Rae or Charli D’Amelio might spring to mind.
But an expected star is taking over the platform – a four-year-old parrot called Apollo.
The African grey boasts a whopping 2.8 million TikTok followers, who he delights with videos showing off his impressive talking skills.
Now, Apollo has earned the Guinness World Record for the most items identified by a parrot in three minutes.
Incredible footage shows the bird identifying an impressive 12 items, including a Wario toy, a cork, and a bottle.
When it comes to TikTok stars, famous faces such as Addison Rae or Charli D’Amelio might spring to mind. But an expected star is taking over the platform – a four-year-old parrot called Apollo
Four-year-old Apollo, an African grey parrot from St Petersburg, Florida, secured the record after successfully identifying 12 items.
His ‘proud parents’ Dalton and Victoria Mason, both 25, who are content creators, hope the achievement on December 18 2023 highlights the ‘natural intelligence’ of animals, which may sometimes goes unnoticed.
‘Our mission is to spread awareness of the natural intelligence found in animals,’ the couple said.
‘We hope that our title can change the meaning behind the phrase “bird brain”.’
The pair first saw Apollo in December 2020 at a local pet shop and said they knew he would be part of the family.
Four-year-old Apollo, an African grey parrot from St Petersburg, Florida, secured the record after successfully identifying 12 items, including a block, a rock and a sock
His ‘proud parents’ Dalton and Victoria Mason, both 25, who are content creators, hope the achievement on December 18 2023 highlights the ‘natural intelligence’ of animals, which may sometimes goes unnoticed
Others seem to be interested in the antics of Apollo, as he boasts roughly 2.8 million followers on TikTok and 1.37 million followers on YouTube via the account Apollo and Frens on both platforms.
They try to keep Apollo as stimulated as possible through training sessions or giving him his favourite treat – pistachios – and said they have taken inspiration from animal psychologist Dr Irene Pepperberg’s model-rival method, which saw her work with an African grey parrot called Alex.
The method involved two trainers – one who would give instructions, and one who would model correct and incorrect responses and act as Alex’s rival for the trainer’s attention.
Alex displayed a high level of intelligence and Dr Pepperberg showed a parrot’s communication skills are able to go beyond mimicking sounds.
Apollo has also shown his brainpower, with his owners saying: ‘Once he started to learn his first object labels, colours and materials, we knew that he would be able to achieve many of the incredible things that Alex did and potentially much more.
‘There is really no limit to what we hope Apollo will learn.’