Relationship with humans Humans and parrots have a complicated relationship. Economically they can be beneficial to communities as sources of income from the pet trade and are highly marketable tourism draws and symbols. Many tourists are interested to learn how to teach a parrot to talk. Tourism operatives can use this to establish local business to fulfil this need. But some species are also economically important pests, particularly some cockatoo species in Australia. Some parrots have also benefited from human changes to the environment in some instances, and have expanded their ranges where agricultural practices, and many parrots have declined as well. As tens of millions of individuals have been removed from the wild, parrots have been traded in greater numbers and for far longer than any other group of wild animals. A large number of parrot species are threatened by this trade as well as habitat loss, predation by introduced species and other forms of hunting. Some parrot species are agricultural pests, eating fruits, grains, and other crops, but parrots can also benefit economies through birdwatching based ecotourism. Parrots as pets Popular as pets due to their sociable nature, high intelligence, bright colours and ability to imitate human voices, parrots have historically been kept captive in many cultures. Europeans kept birds matching the description of the Rose-ringed Parakeet (or called the ring-necked parrot.) Such as in this first century account by Pliny the Elder. As they have been prized for thousands of years for their beauty and ability to talk, they have also proven hard to care for. For example, author Wolfgang de Grahl discusses in his 1987 book "The Grey Parrot," that some importers allowed parrots to drink only coffee while they were being shipped by boat considering pure water to be detrimental and believing that their actions would increase survival rates during shipping. (These days it is commonly accepted that the caffeine in coffee is toxic to birds.) Captive parrots can be kept in a cage or aviary. Some are wing-clipped. Depending on locality parrots may be either wild caught or be captive bred. They require feeding, grooming, veterinary care, and environmental enrichment through the provision of toys. Some parrot species, including large cockatoos, Amazon, and macaws, have very long life-spans with 80 years being reported and record ages of over one hundred. Other parrots, such as love birds and hanging parrots have short life spans. Parrots types that are commonly kept as pets include conures, macaws, Amazons, cockatoos, African Greys, lovebirds, cockatiels, budgerigars, eclectus, Caiques ,and parakeets. Each species of bird has different needs.