A belated posting. I wanted to embed video but apparently the corpse of Steve Jobs doesn’t want me to be able to do that either so, if you’d like to hear the clever birdy, you’ll need to go here or search for “chook the superb lyrebird” on the Googles.
29 December 2011: Adelaide Zoo’s much loved lyrebird Chook, known for his stunning vocal ability, has died at the age of 32.
Chook became a YouTube star after he was filmed imitating the sounds of construction work, which he probably picked up as the zoo’s panda enclosure was being built in 2009. …
Chook had been at the zoo for 20 years, arriving from the Healesville Sanctuary.
Adelaide Zoo’s Brett Backhouse was Chook’s keeper for 11 years and says 32 is a good age for a lyrebird. …
“He was hand raised so he was quite human habituated. That sort of gave him some special abilities as well. He was a lot braver with humans because he was so used to them. …
“It’s part of their courtship that they perform. Ones out in the wild in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland will mimic whatever they can find and they use it to attract a female and sort of show how clever they are,” Mr Backhouse said.
“We’re still getting used to the fact that the aviary’s very, very quiet.”
I wish I could imitate noises that well. I’d park myself outside Laura Bush’s bedroom window and make car accident noises.
Oh, and just in case you missed it, Mr Levenson has another Balloon Jobs thread going on down below the simultaneous Jesus posts.