Fang Ye chatted with the audience, and before he knew it, they had arrived at the parrot enclosure.
He planned to first check on the parrots' condition since they had just arrived in a new environnt and he didn't know how they would react. If any showed stress from the visitors and were not acclimatized, he would take them back to the rear enclosure to rest. It was a minor matter if visitors couldn't see them; the animals' wellbeing ca first.
There were already more than ten visitors gathered around at this ti!
Several red-and-green macaws stood on perches or rope bridges, curiously observing the visitors outside.
Their condition seed alright, none appeared overly tense. Of course, aside from the parrots' naturally lively and social nature, the specially arranged environnt of the enclosure and companionship was probably why they felt relaxed.
A little boy pulled on his father's hand and shouted loudly, "Wow, Dad, look, what big birds!"
"These are parrots!" the father corrected.
"Such big birds!"
The father looked at the nearby informative sign and taught his son, "This bird is called a red-and-green macaw. They live in the tropical rainforests of the north and build their nests on large trees or cliffs..."
Despite the lack of a fancy exhibition hall, it was still necessary to have an explanatory sign. The sign gave a simple introduction to their distribution and habits.
The little boy wasn't paying any attention, his eyes fixed on the splendidly feathered macaw, daydreaming, "If only I had such a big bird! Ming and Pingping would definitely be jealous. I won't let them play with it unless they buy so spicy strips!"
Among these visitors, several were trying to teach the parrots to speak.
When it cos to parrots, their most famous ability is mimicking speech.
A kindly-looking old man seed very enthusiastic, pursing his lips to form a circle, and began to whistle, "Whew~whew~whoo~".
A macaw flapped its wings and flew to a thick, long perch close to the wire sh, listening with a tilted head, then opened its beak to mimic, "Tweet~tweet~spit~, Tweet~tweet~spit~," calling out in succession.
Although the tone had so subtle differences, it was clear that it was imitating the old man!
The natural voice of the macaw is a hoarse caw, but imitating human speech sounds sowhat like a person squeezing their throat to make noises.
"Brother ng, you can whistle pretty well, right? Whistle a bit and see if the parrot can learn it."
"Yeah, do 'Laputa: Castle in the Sky'!" a young man in an ani shirt egged on his friend.
The three visitors standing together were all in their twenties, probably university students on holiday, out playing together.
The youth who was bespectacled and looked sowhat bookish seed a bit shy; there were other visitors around, after all. He hesitated and then said, "Then you'll have to buy a drink later, okay?"
"Sure!" The ani-shirted friend agreed heartily, "I'll treat you tonight at the internet café."
So, the bespectacled youth closed his eyes, geared up emotionally, and started whistling the lody of "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" slowly. Although the whistling ran out of breath towards the end and was slightly flawed, the high notes were quite lodious and accurate.
The live stream's audience was surprised and sent a flurry of comnts.
"Wow, that was pretty good whistling, bro!"
"Tis Flown By the Wind" tipped 8 shrimp balls!
"Isn't this a bit too difficult? Can the parrot learn it?"
"No way it can learn that! If it does, I'll eat my keyboard right here!"
Bird Enthusiast: "This lody is too complex, parrots can mimic but a simple tune or a short phrase might only take a few listens for them to pick up. However, repeating a complex sentence many tis, it might take months or even a year or two for training before it can be mastered. To expect it to learn after hearing it once isn't very realistic."
"Wow, Bird Enthusiast is a pro! What does Bird Enthusiast do?"
Hu Yan wanted to write, "Ashad as I am to say, I'm just an unremarkable online novelist," but then thought better of it and deleted it, because he genuinely felt ashad. He should have been writing at that ti but was lounging in his chair, leisurely watching the live stream.
Not a word had been written, yet he felt an inexplicable sense of ease.jpg
"Forget it, I'll write tonight, banging out two thousand words in an hour…" Hu Yan consoled himself in his mind.
Ah, bla it on the live stream for being too captivating!
The young man with glasses didn't play "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" in its entirety, just two phrases from it, after all, it was difficult enough to teach a macaw just one or two phrases.
The macaw turned its head from left to right, its small eyes flashing with great confusion as if to say, what the hell are you playing? You've completely baffled .
After the young man with glasses finished playing, it squawked ''Hmm hmm~'' twice.
That was it.
"Eh~"
The crowd sighed in disappointnt but also felt it was only natural, thinking if it truly could learn such a complex lody in such a short ti, it wouldn't be a parrot but a person in parrot's skin.
Fang Ye thought, maybe he could set up a sign with so simpler words written on it, so that when visitors co, they can say these words to the parrot, which should help it learn faster.
The guy in the ani shirt said to the young man with glasses, "Brother ng, why don't you just repeat one phrase to it several tis and try again."
The young man with glasses thus played it two more tis, unexpectedly arousing the interest of another macaw, which flew over from its hanging rope.
While listening to the beautiful lody of "Laputa: Castle in the Sky", one macaw swayed slowly from side to side, completely enraptured by the music, the other macaw watched it, looking quite astonished.
"Wow, Daddy, look, that bird is dancing!" a little boy shouted.
"Oh~"
"Amazing!"
"Such a cute parrot!"
The tourists exclaid in awe, and so had already taken out their phones to take photos or record videos.
The artsy macaw liked this lody, but also couldn't imitate it, just swaying its body slowly to the whistle.
The tourists were amazed, and the online audience was also busily discussing it.
"Do parrots also understand music?"
"Damn, this is one artsy parrot! Why not try so Mozart on it?"
"These parrots have different tastes, huh? Are there any that like rock music?"
"Jing Lei, this heaven-fixing art shatters the heavens and pounds the earth with a purple-gold hamr!"
"Drop so EDM!"
Fang Ye watched the barrage of comnts roll by, realizing that a lot of people were curious about how the parrots would react to dynamic music.
So he smiled and said, "Alright, let's play so EDM for them!"
He opened the music player on his phone, found "Animals", and played it!
Blue Planet and Earth are mostly the sa, and artistic works from Earth are basically available on Blue Planet.
"Animals" is a very famous EDM track, Martin Garrix's breakout piece, and it's jokingly called "Five Animal Frolics" because of a segnt in the music video's prelude which shows five people wearing animal masks erging from mist, stepping to the beat of EDM, pushing over drums while breakdancing, giving off a wild and spirited vibe.
The tourists' attention was all on the parrots, and since Fang Ye had stayed quiet until he played the music, it was only then that people noticed him.
So tourists who recognized him greeted him, "Hey, Zoo Director, hello!"
"Isn't this 'Animals'?"
"Haha, currently live streaming, playing a track on request from the audience!"
As soon as the music played, the tourists started shaking their bodies uncontrollably!
The several macaws in different spots within the enclosure, the two close to the tal sh heard it first, and the two further away noticed shortly after. Listening to the highly dynamic beat, all of their heads turned in unison.
As they listened, their bodies began to shake!
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