Chico the parrot has got a need for speed!
The Triton cockatoo, a beloved pet of Kaloyan Yavashev (Bulgaria), loves giving his wings a rest and travelling by scooter instead.
And he’s so nippy on the unusual form of transport that he holds the record for fastest 5 m on a scooter by a parrot.
Chico, now aged seven, first set his record with a time of 17.79 seconds on 10 February 2022.
And just five days later, he smashed his own time on the set of our Italian TV show Lo Show dei Record in Milan, completing the course in just 14.58 seconds.
An adorable clip from the programme shows Chico standing on a tiny scooter with one foot and holding the handlebars in his beak as he uses his other foot to push himself forwards.
He stops a couple of times, almost as if he’s taking a moment to enjoy the audience’s admiration, before setting off again and scooting all the way to the 5 m marker.
Professional parrot breeder and trainer Kaloyan brought Chico home when he was around three months old and soon realized his incredible potential for performance.
Chico was born with a natural curiosity, and Kaloyan said the bird would often explore whatever area he was in, demonstrating a much higher level of intelligence than the average bird.
Dad-of-three Kaloyan started off by giving Chico simple tasks and found he learned new skills very quickly.
He is a natural talent. We started to train him to do more serious tricks, but he did everything very easily and without any problem. - Kaloyan
Riding his scooter is just a fun game for Chico, who knows exactly what he needs to do to get Kaloyan’s attention when he wants to play.
Kaloyan told us: “Parrots are very social animals and for them it is very natural to be close to people.
“When Chico wants to play or my attention, he goes by himself to the toys and takes something from there. He starts to play with the toy or he brings it to me and he enjoys when I start to encourage him and give him applause.”
Chico is a multi-talented boy who can do much more than riding a scooter… just in case that wasn’t impressive enough for you.
During his time on Lo Show dei Record, Chico showed off some of his other tricks, including pedalling a tiny bicycle and one of Kaloyan’s other parrots took to the stage to dunk little balls into a parrot-sized hoop.
Kaloyan said: “For [Chico] it doesn’t matter if he is on TV or not. He feels the people and the attention, but in the end he is like a small child - he just wants to play.”
Proud Kaloyan has more than 60 parrots, and many of them have special skills including recognizing numbers from one to 10 and doing puzzles.
He added: “I take my job as a mission to build a bridge between the parrots and the people. Showing what these birds are capable of is a way to get more respect and care for them.”
Kaloyan often stages shows with his amazing birds and says people who watch tell him they had no idea birds could be so clever.
That makes me very happy, because this is the main reason of our job. Most of the people think that the main and only skill of the parrots is talking. We show them that they can do much more than that and give them knowledge if they want to have a parrot as a pet.
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