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rfmcdonaldFrom The New York Times:
Papperberg's research with Alex started off a whole series of investigations into the actual intelligence of birds. It turned out that birds were often quite smart, with African grey parrots like Alex being smartest of all. Alex was cited by Temple Grandin as proof of the extent to which humans underestimate the intelligence of animals. In the words of Christine Kenneally at The Huffington Post, "Alex's talents showed that the ability to understand categories like color and shape and number is not only not specific to humans, it's not special to apes, or even to mammals. Alex could use these categories to understand complicated labels, and in the larger meaning created by stringing some of these labels together, like "What color five?" His skill in comprehending and using these concepts was much greater than was once thought possible. Humans may have words for these concepts, but Alex showed that you don't have to have language as we do in order to understand them or to be able to act on that understanding." Though, as The New York Times article notes, scientists were critical of Alex's mastery of grammar and abstract concepts, his communicative abilities were clear.
Donations can be made to the Alex Foundation.
He knew his colors and shapes, he learned more than 100 English words, and with his own brand of one-liners he established himself in TV shows, scientific reports, and news articles as perhaps the world’s most famous talking bird.
But last week Alex, an African Grey parrot, died, apparently of natural causes, said Dr. Irene Pepperberg, a comparative psychologist at Brandeis University and Harvard who studied and worked with the parrot for most of its life and published reports of his progress in scientific journals. The parrot was 31.
Scientists have long debated whether any other species can develop the ability to learn human language. Alex’s language facility was, in some ways, more surprising than the feats of primates that have been taught American Sign Language, like Koko the gorilla, trained by Penny Patterson at the Gorilla Foundation/Koko.org in Woodside, Calif., or Washoe the chimpanzee, studied by R. Allen and Beatrice Gardner at the University of Nevada in the 1960s and 1970s.
When, in 1977, Dr. Pepperberg, then a doctoral student in chemistry at Harvard, bought Alex from a pet store, scientists had little expectation that any bird could learn to communicate with humans. Most of the research had been done in pigeons, and was not promising.
Papperberg's research with Alex started off a whole series of investigations into the actual intelligence of birds. It turned out that birds were often quite smart, with African grey parrots like Alex being smartest of all. Alex was cited by Temple Grandin as proof of the extent to which humans underestimate the intelligence of animals. In the words of Christine Kenneally at The Huffington Post, "Alex's talents showed that the ability to understand categories like color and shape and number is not only not specific to humans, it's not special to apes, or even to mammals. Alex could use these categories to understand complicated labels, and in the larger meaning created by stringing some of these labels together, like "What color five?" His skill in comprehending and using these concepts was much greater than was once thought possible. Humans may have words for these concepts, but Alex showed that you don't have to have language as we do in order to understand them or to be able to act on that understanding." Though, as The New York Times article notes, scientists were critical of Alex's mastery of grammar and abstract concepts, his communicative abilities were clear.
Even up through last week, Alex was working with Dr. Pepperberg on compound words and hard-to-pronounce words. As she put him into his cage for the night last Thursday, Dr. Pepperberg said, Alex looked at her and said: “You be good, see you tomorrow. I love you.”
He was found dead in his cage the next morning, and was determined to have died late Thursday night.
Donations can be made to the Alex Foundation.
