Parrots are smarter than you think. Give them too much freedom and you never know what sort of mischief they’ll get up to. In a hilarious story from a few weeks ago, one woman found this out the hard way when she gave her parrot access to an Amazon Alexa — the new virtual assistant device developed by the giant tech company.
The parrot, named Rocco, became addicted to online shopping!
Through trial, error, and a little bit of luck, Rocco was able to figure out how to use Alexa to get snacks delivered right to his home.
After hearing his owners talking to Alexa, Rocco, of course, began copying them. When no one was home at their Berkshire UK house, Alexa gave him someone to chat with throughout the day.
Eventually, however, he realized that he could use the voice speaker to order food.
Since his discovery, he has managed to purchase a variety of different treats including strawberries, watermelon, ice cream, broccoli, and raisins.
Sometimes he buys things he doesn’t need as well. His other random purchases include a kettle, kite, and light bulbs. We can only assume that these were impulse buys. Who knows though? Maybe the parrot just wanted to get his family some early Christmas presents.
“I have to check the shopping list when I come in from work and cancel all the items he’s ordered,” owner Marion Wischnewski told the Daily Mail.
This isn’t the first time, however, that Rocco has gotten into trouble. For years, Rocco lived at the National Animal Welfare Trust sanctuary, but eventually, they had to kick him out for swearing too much.
The staff was concerned that his foul-mouth might offend visitors.
Wischnewski, who was an employee there at the time, decided to adopt him to head off any problems.
Rocco is an African Grey, a breed that is well-known for its amazing imitation ability, and it turns out ordering food isn’t the only trick he has learned.
In an interview with Fox News Denver, Wischnewski elaborated:
“I’ve come home before and he has romantic music playing,” Wischnewski said. “He loves to dance and has the sweetest personality.”
Rocco’s favorite? None other than popular rock band Kings of Leon.
He is definitely lucky that he has such a great owner. While many people would be extremely upset if their pet bird started ordering things online, Wischnewski is pretty understanding.
She doesn’t mind the fact that her shopping bill has been going up lately, and in fact, it seems she finds the whole thing quite humorous.
You never know what kind of trouble Rocco could get up to in the future though, especially as virtual assistant technology and artificial intelligence continue to improve. Since African Grey’s generally live somewhere between 40-60 years, Rocco will definitely be around to see all the changes happen.
Maybe one day Wischnewski will remove the Amazon Echo smart speakers that Rocco uses to talk with Alexa from the room, but for now, everything is a-okay.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
A parrot is using an Alexa device to order things from Amazon https://t.co/A7KMm5Vqlm
— The Independent (@Independent) December 15, 2018
