Julie and Ed Cardoza are parrot trainers and owners of Zac, a 25-year-old parrot who holds a spot in Guinness World Records 2013 for the most basketballs slam-dunked by a parrot in a minute.
The Cardozas, from San Jose, California, have been presenting a show of their trained birds for over 20 years at birthday parties, corporate events, libraries, and schools.
During the show, Zac can bike, scooter, skateboard, roll over, raise a flag, and more.
Julie and Ed have raised the Harlequin Macaw from chick-hood, and trained him daily for 22 years until his recent retirement. "Now," says Julie, "he just shoots hoops for the fun of it!"
Zac has a vocabulary of 100 words and talks most when taking a car ride.
He also holds the Guinness World Record for most soda cans opened by a parrot in 60 seconds.
Explaining the show's appeal, Julie says: "Our show is family friendly so we have the opportunity to visit many ages (we even did a birthday for a 100 year old woman!), and cultures. It's great to share our special parrots".
"Our audiences are amazed not only with Zac's tricks but by how truly happy he and the other the birds are."
And how does it feel to be a Guinness World Records holder? "All we can say is WOW," notes Julie. "We are very proud of Zac and we're glad that he had so much fun making the record!"
Zac's record and many, many more feature in the new Guinness World Records 2013 edition - is out now worldwide from all good retailers. Find out more about the book and its incredible augmented reality feature, and where you can buy a copy of Guinness World Records 2013 here:
www.guinnessworldrecords.com/2013/
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