Guinness World Record-holding holding parrot, video-gaming dog underscore animal cognition

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — In a St. Petersburg house, there is a living room filled with play toys belonging to a precocious preschooler, named Apollo. The four-year-old African Grey parrot is a Guinness World Record holder.

“He identified 12 things in three minutes, and that’s including snack breaks. Typically it’s four questions for a pistachio,” Apollo’s owner Dalton Mason said.

From glass to paper to rocks, socks and a Shrek figurine, Apollo speaks perfect English.

“There are so many instances where you can tell he’s thinking, observing,” Dalton said.

Dalton and his wife, Tori, bought Apollo during the pandemic at Animal House Pet Center in St. Petersburg. For an African Grey, he was a bargain at $1,700, and they had just gotten a stimulus check for about the same amount.

“I feel like it’s a very worthy investment of the stimulus check. Look, it’s a new job, a whole new career starting the business, like, very stimulating that check,” Tori said.

Since Tori and Dalton brought Apollo home, they have become his flock — and he rules the roost.

“We socialize him like a human son,” Tori said.

She says it’s a bond straight out of the book of Genesis.

“It’s literally the first story, speaking to the animal, Eve talking to the serpent. Like, speaking to animals and being able to communicate with them is like the first ever story,” she added.

Their day revolves around training Apollo while a cameraman documents his remarkable abilities. Tori spends her day editing videos. Their @ApolloandFrens social media accounts have attracted legions of fans.

“We have 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube. We have 450,000 followers on Facebook, 1.3 million followers on Instagram, 2.9 million followers on TikTok,” Dalton said.

Those social media accounts are the couple’s sole source of income. Dalton says much of what they earn is used to buy supplies for Apollo. 

Apollo’s amazing abilities have captured the attention of the Eckerd College Animal Studies department.

“Birds have actually become superstars in the area of animal cognition and they’ve showcased being able to problem solve, do all these sorts of complex, cognitive tasks that, for a long time, we thought only primates could do,” Lauren Highfill, an Eckerd Professor of Psychology and Animal Sciences, said.

For the past two years, Eckerd senior Gracie Barrentine has been working with Apollo to develop a baseline of his accuracy.

“I’ve never worked with an animal that’s been able to verbalize back to me. It’s definitely a partnership. It’s not necessarily, I’m constantly teaching him. It’s always, we’re teaching each other and we’re learning together. I call him my best friend. I don’t know if the feeling is mutual or not,” Barrentine said with a smile.

It is not just Apollo putting on a show for Eckerd Students. A mild-mannered mutt named Orlo is learning how to play video games.

“We’ve taught him what we call ‘concept behaviors’ where he has to really think about it,” Eckerd senior Amanda Crossen said.

Orlo uses his nose to press buttons and each time he successfully performs a video challenge, a treat is dispensed.

“No one’s ever actually trained a dog to use a video game in this way, asking some questions about his ability to problem solve, plan, we can get at some of these other sort of cognitive abilities through the gaming. A lot of time animals prefer to do the work for the food. They actually want to do the cognitive processing and the problem solving,” Professor Highfill said.

Orlo is part Standard Poodle, part Australian Shepherd with a little coyote mixed in. His owner, Eckerd Animal Studies professor Sarah Nadler says Orlo loves the challenge of playing video games.

“I think he gets so much out of it. He does what we call “Tigger pops” where when we’re leaving to come here, he jumps straight up in the air over and over and over again. So, behaviorally, we see a ton of enthusiasm,” she explained.

As Orlo and Apollo dazzle an audience, Professor Highfill says there is a lot about animal learning we don’t fully understand.

“When it comes to studying animals, it’s hard because we’re humans and we think like humans and so, when we’re asking questions of animals, sometimes we don’t ask it in the right way. There’s no limit to where their cognition goes,” Highfill said.