British parrot returns four years later, speaking Spanish
Nigel, an African grey parrot, left home four years ago speaking with a distinctive British accent. Now his owner is wondering 鈥溌u茅 pas贸?鈥�
An African Grey Parrot in Boston, Mass.
Ari Denison/海角大神
When Nigel left home four years ago, he spoke English with a proper British accent.
When Nigel returned to his owner last week, he had a question, which he conveyed in a Panamanian accent: 鈥溌u茅 pas贸?鈥�
What did happen to the African grey parrot? Little is known how Nigel spent the last four years after from Torrance, Calif., but it might have something to do with 鈥淟arry鈥� 鈥� a name the bird keeps muttering, according to The Breeze.
Nigel (Larry?) turned up at a home in Torrance belonging to a dog spa owner, who told the Los Angeles Times he鈥檇 say 鈥渘o problema鈥� and when he saw salsa on TV.
The dog spa owner reached out to a local veterinarian Teresa Micco, who had been running ads for her own lost African grey parrot, Benjamin.
Though Nigel wasn鈥檛 her missing Benjamin, Ms. Micco found, ironically, she had implanted the bird with a microchip six years earlier. And though the chip wasn鈥檛 registered, paper sales records traced Nigel to a local pet store, where a sales slip with his band number identified the parrot鈥檚 owner, according to The Breeze.
Micco , African grey in tow.
鈥淚 introduced myself and said, 鈥楬ave you lost a bird?鈥� He initially said no. But he thought I meant recently,鈥� reported The Independent. 鈥淗e looked at me like I was crazy.鈥�
The bird then bit his British owner when he tried to pick him up, but a week later, Chick told The Breeze 鈥渉e鈥檚 doing perfect.鈥�
Micco since her own has been missing for nine months, according to the BBC.
According to petfinder.com, statistics indicate , and veterinarians encourage microchipping as one in three pets will become lost at some point during their life.
A study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association confirmed the high rate of return of microchipped dogs and cats to their families. Only about 22 percent of lost dogs left at animal shelters were reunited with their families, but the return-to-owner rate for microchipped dogs was over 52 percent.
The same study found only 58 percent of the microchipped animals鈥� microchips had been registered in a database with their owners鈥� contact information.