Articulate Alex Dies

[livius drusus]

Alex, the brilliant and wonderful African gray parrot subject of many a PBS documentary, has died of apparent natural causes. Brainy Parrot Dies, Emotive to the End (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/11/science/11parrot.html?em&ex=1190001600&en=7fa549cb6867a5ca&ei=5087%0A)

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 television shows, scientific reports and news articles as perhaps the world’s most famous talking bird.

But last week Alex, an African gray 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 his life and published reports of his progress in scientific journals. The parrot was 31.
[...]
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, she recalled, 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, Dr. Pepperberg said.
:sad:

Alex at work

[Dingfod]

Awk! Pieces of eight, pieces of eight!
:ljs:

[Dragar]

That's very sad. :(

[Sock Puppet]

Aw, crap. And isn't 31 rather short for a parrot lifespan? I dunno from African Greys specifically, but I've been told that a routine part of getting a parrot is deciding whom to will it to.

[Leesifer]

:aww:

I thought that parrots lived a lot longer too, Sock.

[Ensign Steve]

I thought I posted my theory on that, but obviously not. Maybe I said it chat, or something.

Anyway, yeah, 31 is real young for a parrot, so I figure he died of some sort of Flowers for Algernon genius sickness. :yup:

[The Lone Ranger]

African Grays aren't the longest-lived of parrots, but they still live for more than 50 years on average. So Alex died young, sadly.

I've seen videos of Alex in action and I've read Pepperberg's papers. Even though I think Pepperberg tended to exaggerate Alex's capabilities (understandably -- he was her baby and her star pupil), he was nonetheless clearly capable of understanding categories such as "color" and sorting objects into the appropriate categories when asked to do so.

More to the point, he was clearly capable of understanding that words have abstract meanings and could generalize. His abilities couldn't be explained as simple stimulus-response behavior, and he shattered the myth that only primates are capable of any sort of abstract reasoning.

Cheers,

Michael