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Who's a clever boy then? Apollo the parrot achieves Guinness World Records title
Four-year-old Apollo, a parrot from Florida, USA, is Officially Amazing! Apollo successfully identified 12 items to achieve the most items identified by a parrot in three minutes.
Extremely proud parents, Dalton and Victoria, hope this will highlight the often-overlooked natural intelligence of animals.
In December 2020, Dalton and Victoria went to the local pet shop to buy crickets for their leopard gecko and Apollo the grey African parrot immediately captured their attention. After meeting him, they instantly knew he’d be joining the family.
Dalton and Victoria love Apollo very much and do their best to raise him as closely to a human child as possible. Together, they have training sessions to keep Apollo stimulated and engaged. It’s all about letting his intelligence shine!
They share they “use Dr. Irene Pepperberg’s Model/Rival method of training when working with Apollo.” Dr. Pepperberg is an animal psychologist who worked extensively with an African grey parrot, Alex, on a study that spanned across thirty years and the University of Arizona, Harvard, and Brandeis. To read more about this training, see our article here.
Alex showcased incredible intelligence and Dr. Pepperberg showed that a parrot’s communication skills can go far beyond mimicking sounds. Dalton and Victoria saw Apollo’s potential to follow in Alex’s footsteps and began this training.
They share that, “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.”
Their strategy is to “teach him as much as we can naturally in day-to-day life and focus on the things that Apollo wants to focus on. We believe he will learn things faster that way.”
Apollo is very curious. He enjoys learning skills and applying that knowledge outside of training.
When he’s not learning new things, Apollo loves playing with toys until it’s mealtime or earning a treat (pistachios are his favourite!) by answering questions from his parents. He shares playtime with his two White-Bellies Caique sisters, Soleil and Ophelia.
His personality has captured the attention of the world with many viral videos. With a following on TikTok of 2.8M followers and YouTube of 1.37M followers and counting, Apollo is one of the internet’s favourite pets. Check in with Apollo and his new skills at Apollo and Frens on both platforms.
As for what’s next, Apollo is working hard on verbalizing “plastic” and “cloth.” His most recent word is “four,” which he loves to interject when he hears anybody say “one,” “two,” or “three,” regardless of the context.
Dalton and Victoria intend for him to learn as many objects and labels as possible but are also looking forward to progressing his knowledge with more conceptual ideas like shapes and actions. They share, “There is really no limit to what we hope Apollo will learn.”
Their advice to others with animals who have unique skills is: “An environment where the animal can behave most ‘naturally’ will foster their uniqueness and lead to more productive growth.”
“Our mission is to spread awareness of the natural intelligence found in animals. We hope that our title can change the meaning behind the phrase ‘bird brain.’”
Apollo’s incredible skills are featured in Guinness World Records 2025, releasing on September 12th .
See here for information on how to secure your own copy and learn more about impressive record holders like Apollo!