Alex the African Grey

[dizzle]

I am very sad to say that Alex, the famous bird that was the subject of the work of Dr. Irene Pepperberg, died this morning of unknown causes.

http://www.alexfoundation.org/

[gharfish]

I have heard that the illegal capture and trading of parrots out of S. America results in the deaths of many of these rare (and beautiful and intelligent) birds. In smuggling them into the US, and elsewhere, they suffer so badly in transist--the heartless way they are secretly "shipped in."

Alex was as young as in his thirties, it seems. I wonder if he had a heart attack (?) ...a freakish sort of unforseeable sudden death ? I imagine all the researchers are very very sad about this.

[gharfish]

Here he is.

[dizzle]

I can't even describe how sad I am about this. Alex was a special bird, there will never be one like him again.

[Amazing Rando]

I can't even describe how sad I am about this. Alex was a special bird, there will never be one like him again.

Alex was an incredible bird, capable of some unbelievable intelligence, and yet in some ways he wasn't so special after all. Dr. Pepperberg started the Alex experiment not by selecting the most remarkable parrot she could obtain, but simply by going into a pet store and buying an African Grey at random. If Alex really does represent what is possible for the average African Grey, then it would seem to follow that almost any Grey could acheive what Alex accomplished, if given equal attention and training.

Given what I've observed, I don't think we can say that there will never be another Grey who is like Alex in intelligence and accomplishments. I think that most every parrot has the potential to do what Alex did, perhaps even more! Dr. Pepperberg would probably tell us that she had barely even begun to help Alex realize his full potential yet. That's why they're such special critters.

I've got a Congo Grey, just like Alex, and my little guy is capable of some pretty remarkable stuff as well- nowhere near what Alex accomplished, but I certainly haven't worked with him to the degree that Dr Pepperberg and her associates did, nor do I have their biological and behavioral expertise. Here's me and my little bird at the bird store when we bought him 3 years ago:

[dizzle]

I don't think Alex is typical of what Greys can accomplish. I do know the story of how Dr. Pepperberg found him, and I tend to think it is an incredible juxtaposition of fate, not typical. Perhaps I will be proven wrong, but I don't think so. I am awaiting word to hear what happened to him. I hate to say it but the first thought that I had is that someone poisoned him - a disgruntled or jealous lab worker or animal rights nutbar.

Check out the articles on the site. There is some intriquing evidence that Alex understood the concept of "zero" - which is a complex concept. Also in the middle of an experiment when they were trying to trip him up by asking him which of the items in front of him were purple when none of them were - he asked for a grape.

Alex made up words as well, that made sense. For instance, Alex loved nuts and corks. The first time he was presented with an almond, he said "corknut"

He did the same with an apple, pronouncing it to be a banerry (he knew the words banana and cherry)

[dizzle]

Here is another great Alex story

There are some things that the birds do that, colloquially speaking, "just blow us away." We were training Alex to sound out phonemes, not because we want him to read as humans do, but we want to see if he understands that his labels are made up of sounds that can be combined in different ways to make up new words; that is, to demonstrate evidence for segmentation. He babbles at dusk, producing strings like "green, cheen, bean, keen", so we have some evidence for this behavior, but we need more solid data.

Thus we are trying to get him to sound out refrigerator letters, the same way one would train children on phonics. We were doing demos at the Media Lab for our corporate sponsors; we had a very small amount of time scheduled and the visitors wanted to see Alex work. So we put a number of differently colored letters on the tray that we use, put the tray in front of Alex, and asked, "Alex, what sound is blue?" He answers, "Ssss." It was an "s", so we say "Good birdie" and he replies, "Want a nut."

Well, I don't want him sitting there using our limited amount of time to eat a nut, so I tell him to wait, and I ask, "What sound is green?" Alex answers, "Ssshh." He's right, it's "sh," and we go through the routine again: "Good parrot." "Want a nut." "Alex, wait. What sound is orange?" "ch." "Good bird!" "Want a nut." We're going on and on and Alex is clearly getting more and more frustrated. He finally gets very slitty-eyed and he looks at me and states, "Want a nut. Nnn, uh, tuh."

Not only could you imagine him thinking, "Hey, stupid, do I have to spell it for you?" but the point was that he had leaped over where we were and had begun sounding out the letters of the words for us. This was in a sense his way of saying to us, "I know where you're headed! Let's get on with it," which gave us the feeling that we were on the right track with what we were doing. These kinds of things don't happen in the lab on a daily basis, but when they do, they make you realize there's a lot more going on inside these little walnut-sized brains than you might at first imagine."

Dr. Irene Pepperberg

[$cirisme]

that is amazing. it is so unfortunate he died. :frown:

[dizzle]

Here is an Alex video clip - it is really short though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcLLk-r1aSs

[gharfish]

Good video there. Very interesting.

Here's really good picture of Alex, from the website (just in case people come by, but don't click on the 'right' internal link). I tried to enhance the color just a little bit.

[dizzle]

Alex was found to be in good health at his most recent annual physical about two weeks ago. According to the vet who conducted the necropsy, there was no obvious cause of death.

[dizzle]

From the remembering-alex yahoo group

On Thursday, when Pepperberg put Alex back in his cage for the night, she says he told her: "You be good. See you tomorrow. I love you".

from another message

Alex said this every night before he goes to bed.

:bawl: You all can think I am incredibly silly but I am really really sad.

[Amazing Rando]

Editorial on Alex in today's New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/opinion/12wed4.html).

[dizzle]

I watched an incredible video clip that I can't find on Yahoo now. Dr. Irene gave Alex a piece of corn on the cob which he asked for, and when he nibbled at he said "cold" - and she said, "Yes Alex, I just got it out of the fridge"