Alex the Parrot

IQ of 13. Still counts.

       I was randomly wasting my time on the internet, as I find myself doing a lot, when I found something truly marveling and eye-opening. (it's so amazing the things you can discover when you're randomly surfing) If you will, please spare a moment of your time and give this a think as well.
       For the longest time, I was certain that complex mammals were the only beings capable of cognition, with the simplest life-form capable of serious learning (not just conditioning) being the cat/dog/dolphin. Well, I was proven wrong- something I'm glad happens quite a bit- on the 36th birthday of a deceased parrot.

Avian Language EXperiment - "ALEX"

         Alex the Parrot was an African Gray Parrot purchased at a plain old pet store in Chicago. Despite all the things he would eventually learn, flying was not one of them. (His wings were clipped). He was trained and managed by animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg, and lived to be 31 years old, rather young for a species with a life expectancy of 60 years. More on that later. 

         For a bird, Alex was rather amazing, and unheard of at the time. He is a prime example of the power of perspective; to a hardcore fact-based analyzer, he became rather skilled in two-way communications with humans through learning words, and combining them into phrases. To others, though, he used the English language to establish a real working relationship with human beings, perhaps even associating emotions with words. His vocabulary eventually expanded to include around 150 words, and he was even able to do basic addition. Comparing his development to that of children, he had the skills and personality of a typical 5 year old. He recognized that objects were permanent and that they don't stop existing just because they're out of sight, a lesson even newborn humans have to learn.

         One of the biggest arguments for the existence of a personality was the way he approached Pepperberg's experiments. For example, he answered 80% of all the test questions correctly, but more interesting was that were his reactions to the questions. Sometimes, when asked a question that seemed very mundane to him (i.e. "count the number of red objects here"), he would purposefully shout out the wrong answer in defiance of the exam (e.g. answering 17 when only 10 objects, 3 of which were red, were present). Furthermore, he would also communicate his preference for certain locations by saying "Wanna go ___" When he wasn't taken to his destination of choice, he would sometimes complain and repeat again where he wished to go. He once asked what color he was, and learned "gray" after being told six times, and this demonstrates that he might have possessed curiosity.

September 6th, 2007

Representin'.

         Alex the Parrot passed away at the age of 31 rotations around the Earth, doing a great job in advancing the field of animal psychology, something that hardly anyone believed in for birds. The pathology, posted on October 4th, stated: 

            Alex died quickly. He had a sudden, unexpected catastrophic event associated with arteriosclerosis ("hardening of the arteries"). It was either a fatal arrhythmia, heart attack or stroke, which caused him to die suddenly with no suffering. There was no way to predict his demise. All of his tests, including his cholesterol level and asper levels, came back normal earlier that week. His death could not be connected to his current diet or his age; our veterinarian said that she has seen similar events in young (less than 10 year old) birds on healthy diets. Most likely, genetics or the same kind of low-level (impossible to detect in birds as yet) inflammatory disease that is related to heart disease in humans was responsible.

         All in all, Alex possessed a lot of the behavior of a child. He threw a lot of fits, and conveyed annoyance and bad temperament often. He could get bored, and liked to play a lot more than he did work. But for a parrot, he sure was impressive, and the other two birds that continued Pepperberg's research were not quite up to his level. And the saddest part was his last words to Pepperberg: "You be good, see you tomorrow. I love you."
         For the most part, I am a devoted follower of science and its principles, but in this case, it's difficult not to want to have a little faith that maybe there was something that simply couldn't be explained by a law or a theory. Just a thought for your Hump Day.