Apollo, who lives with US creators Dalton and Victoria Mason, has 2.8 million followers on TikTok and 1.3 million on YouTube.
The couple is training a 4-year-old gray parrot that has lived with them since 2020.
On December 13, 2023, Apollo set a world record by naming 12 objects in 3 minutes.
Guinness World Records announced on August 7 that Apollo, who named 12 things including insects, books and socks, broke the record for the most objects identified in three minutes.
“Our goal is to raise awareness of the natural intelligence of animals,” the Mason couple said of the parrot's achievement:
“We hope our title will change the meaning of the phrase 'bird-brained'.”
Gray parrots are one of the most highly intelligent animal species. Previous studies have shown that gray parrots are at least at the cognitive level of 5-year-old children.
The Mason couple says they used Dr. Irene Pepperberg's methods to train their parrots and used Apollo's favorite snack, pistachios. In this method, one person teaches the parrot new things while another person pretends to learn with the animal, showing it the reactions it should make and modeling them.
Dr. Pepperberg, who has been working with a gray parrot named Alex for years, has found that the sounds the animal makes go beyond imitation.
In addition to counting to 6, Alex knows the names of many objects and colors.
