'It's Hot!' Talking Parrot Saves French Couple from Fire
A French couple said their pet parrot saved them from a fire after it woke them by making coughing sounds and crying, "It's hot!"
The couple, who only gave their names as Virginie and Gilles, told French media that their lives were saved by Baby, a 6-year-old African gray parrot from Gabon.
Gilles heard the parrot imitate coughing noises in the early hours of the morning at their home in northwestern France, Virginie said in a video for France Bleu.
She said the parrot then cried, "Oh, it's hot, it's hot! Oh dear, it's hot!"
After hearing Baby, the couple got out of bed and smelled smoke in their living room.
They found the smoke came from their dishwasher, so they unplugged it, Virginie said in the video, speaking while Baby sat on her shoulder.
Firefighters told the couple the smoke might have suffocated them if they had not heard Baby's warning, she said.
In a similar case in the US in 2020, a pet parrot saved a family in Tennessee by waking them after a fire started in their kitchen.
The Tennessee parrot, called Louie, cried "Fire!" but had never used the word before, The Independent said.
Scientists have studied whether talking parrots can understand human language, or are only copying the sounds they hear.
In 2011, researchers said Cosmo, another African gray parrot, learned words in a way that was more than just copying the sounds, and was close to knowing how to use the words.
A study in 2022 found that African gray parrots learn an average of about 60 human words.
In the 1970s, scientist Irene Pepperberg said her pet African gray parrot, Alex, learned to use over 100 words.
