I’ve received an overseas assignment that will last several years and the quarantine procedures will be too much for him.

He will be greatly missed and I wish I could take him with me to the islands.

This will be the last post. Goodbye, everyone.

Dan

You can also hear him saying, “Hey Linus” in my voice and a couple voices of my friends, as well as “Gimme a Kiss” and “Good Boy.”

WALTHAM, MA (SEPTEMBER 10, 2007)—Alex, the world renowned African Grey parrot made famous by the ground-breaking cognition and communication research conducted by Irene Pepperberg, Ph.D., died at the age of 31 on September 6, 2007. Dr. Pepperberg’s pioneering research resulted in Alex learning elements of English speech to identify 50 different objects, 7 colors, 5 shapes, quantities up to and including 6 and a zero-like concept. He used phrases such as “I want X” and “Wanna go Y”, where X and Y were appropriate object and location labels. He acquired concepts of categories, bigger and smaller, same-different, and absence. Alex combined his labels to identify, request, refuse, and categorize more than 100 different items demonstrating a level and scope of cognitive abilities never expected in an avian species. Pepperberg says that Alex showed the emotional equivalent of a 2 year-old child and intellectual equivalent of a 5 year-old. Her research with Alex shattered the generally held notion that parrots are only capable of mindless vocal mimicry.

In 1973, Dr. Pepperberg was working on her doctoral thesis in theoretical chemistry at Harvard University when she watched Nova programs on signing chimps, dolphin communication and, most notably, on why birds sing. She realized that the fields of avian cognition and communication were not only of personal interest to her but relatively uncharted territory. When she finished her thesis, she left the field of chemistry to pursue a new direction—to explore the depths of the avian mind. She decided to conduct her research with an African Grey parrot. In order to assure she was working with a bird representative of its species, she asked the shop owner to randomly choose any African Grey from his collection. It was Alex. And so the 1-year old Alex, his name an acronym for the research project, Avian Learning EXperiment, became an integral part of Pepperberg’s life and the pioneering studies she was about to embark upon.

Over the course of 30 years of research, Dr. Pepperberg and Alex revolutionized the notions of how birds think and communicate. What Alex taught Dr. Pepperberg about cognition and communication has been applied to therapies to help children with learning disabilities. Alex’s learning process is based on the rival-model technique in which two humans demonstrate to the bird what is to be learned. Alex and Dr. Pepperberg have been affiliated with Purdue University, Northwestern University, the University of Arizona, the MIT Media Lab, the Radcliffe Institute, and most recently, Harvard University and Brandeis University.
Alex has been featured worldwide on numerous science programs including the BBC, NHK, Discovery and PBS. He is well known for his interactions with Alan Alda in an episode of Scientific American Frontiers on PBS and from an episode of the famed PBS Nature series called “Look Who’s Talking.” Reports on Alex’s accomplishments have appeared in the popular press and international news from USA Today to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. The Science Times section of the New York Times featured Alex in a front-page story in 1999. That same year, Dr. Pepperberg published The Alex Studies, a comprehensive review of her decades of learning about learning from Alex. Many other television appearances and newspaper articles followed.

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. Dr. Pepperberg will continue her innovative research program at Harvard and Brandeis University with Griffin and Arthur, two other young African Grey parrots who have been a part of the ongoing research program.

Alex has left a significant legacy—not only have he and Dr. Pepperberg and their landmark experiments in modern comparative psychology changed our views of the capabilities of avian minds, but they have forever changed our perception of the term “bird brains.”

For press contacts:
The Alex Foundation and Dr. Pepperberg can be reached by e-mail at the alex@alexfoundation.org or by phone at 781-736-2195.

If you choose to help support this research, please consider making a donation in Alex’s memory to The Alex Foundation, c/o Dr. Irene Pepperberg, Department of Psychology/MS-062, 415 South Street, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454.

He has a new toy from a new friend of his and loves it. It’s supposed to help with his plucking. Thanks Jen!

The feather picking has subsided for the most part and his tail feathers are coming back in slowly. He almost looks normal, although still like he got in a bar fight. He’s liking the new apartment and I’ll probably be rearranging things substantially so I can get him closer to a window. I’m also going to work on building him an aviary in my miniscule back yard so he can enjoy the summer sun with me. The cam will be back online soon as well.

He’s learning some new noises, among them is the highly annoying sound of my pager when I leave the room, probably because he’s observed me running towards that sound on several occasions. He also plays “telephone” where he’ll ring, and then answer it, “Hello?” He then proceeds to chatter for a bit, says goodbye and “hangs up.” He’s also saying “Hi Linus” when someone is in the room and when he hears the carpet shampooer running he’ll make the same beep it does when it’s finished.

I’m pretty pleased with is vocabulary and will try to get some more recordings up as soon as I get the apartment back in order.

Quicktime Video (20MB MPEG4) 

Audio Only

His speech is developing very quickly. In the last month or so he has been speaking gibberish, but he sounds like a human when he does it. He uses inflection, phrasing and it even sounds conversational at times. However he’s like a radio with bad reception. You can kind of hear “words” but it’s not very clear even though it sounds like a human being speaking. He’ll do it for hours at a time and usually when he’s alone although sometimes at night while we’re watching TV he’ll give us the parrot translation of what’s going on.

I’m being told that he may be smarter than the average Grey although I guess that’s an illusion that all parents have. I was under the impression that the speech wouldn’t be starting up for another year and wasn’t aware that there would be so much of it. I’ll be posting a recording of him as soon as I can get a good one.

It looks like Alex may have some competition.

You’ll probably notice that Linus looks a little rough. He’s been feather picking lately and I’ve been working with a local Vet on it but we’re still stumped as to the cause of it. Healthwise he checked out just fine so it’s probably psychological.