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Alex the Parrot RB
Alex, the African grey parrot with the astonishing verbal skills, has died
at age 31: http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...ns_scientists/ |
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Alex the Parrot RB
Kreisleriana wrote:
Alex, the African grey parrot with the astonishing verbal skills, has died at age 31: http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...ns_scientists/ Oh how sad! My first thought was that's very young for an African Grey! It will take a necropsy to determine the cause of death. Members of the parrot family are as good at hiding illness as cats are. Alex may very well have not been feeling up to snuff when he was told goodnight the night before even though he went through his normal routine. For all his intelligence, just like cats, he wouldn't have been able to communicate this without exhibiting some obvious symptoms. In birds, once it gets to that point it's often far too late Jill Jill |
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Alex the Parrot RB
On 2007-09-11 09:47:54 -0500, "Kreisleriana" drtmuiratearthlink.net said:
Alex, the African grey parrot with the astonishing verbal skills, has died at age 31: http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...ns_scientists/ I just heard about this on the news. That is pretty young for a parrot, isn't it? |
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Alex the Parrot RB
Karen wrote:
On 2007-09-11 09:47:54 -0500, "Kreisleriana" drtmuiratearthlink.net said: Alex, the African grey parrot with the astonishing verbal skills, has died at age 31: http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...ns_scientists/ I just heard about this on the news. That is pretty young for a parrot, isn't it? An article I read said that African Greys live to about 50, on average. Alex worked with this group of researchers for 30 years, but I don't know how old he was when he started working with them. I first saw Alex on a TV show, might've been Animal Planet, or maybe PBS, not sure. It showed Irene Pepperberg asking him to identify various pieces of plastic that were in different colors and shapes. She'd say, "Which one is the blue square?" And he'd peck at it (or maybe pick it up, I don't remember). "Which is the red circle?" etc. He got them all right. I remember reading an article a while later that said the remarkable thing about that was that he could keep two concepts in his mind at the same time: color and shape. Not all animals can do that. That was amazing enough, but the thing that impressed me the most was when he started saying, "Wanna go chair. Wanna go chair." Irene said, "Oh, you want to go to your chair? OK." She moved him to the back of "his" chair, and he stopped talking about that. To me that showed that he was able to express a wish, that originated from him, using language. It's one thing when an animal recognizes a sound pattern and understands the idea or object that sound is associated with. Dogs and cats can do that, too. But he was able to express his own thoughts using words. He wasn't just mimicking sounds. He knew which sounds to use to express an idea that he was having. I wonder if other African Greys are as smart as Alex, or maybe he was the Einstein of parrots? Joyce |
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Alex the Parrot RB
"Karen" wrote in message news:2007091119382743658-kchuplis@alltelnet... On 2007-09-11 09:47:54 -0500, "Kreisleriana" drtmuiratearthlink.net said: Alex, the African grey parrot with the astonishing verbal skills, has died at age 31: http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...ns_scientists/ I just heard about this on the news. That is pretty young for a parrot, isn't it? Don't they usually live to around 50 and as long as 70? Tweed |
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Alex the Parrot RB
wrote in message ... Karen wrote: On 2007-09-11 09:47:54 -0500, "Kreisleriana" drtmuiratearthlink.net said: Alex, the African grey parrot with the astonishing verbal skills, has died at age 31: http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...ns_scientists/ I just heard about this on the news. That is pretty young for a parrot, isn't it? An article I read said that African Greys live to about 50, on average. Alex worked with this group of researchers for 30 years, but I don't know how old he was when he started working with them. I first saw Alex on a TV show, might've been Animal Planet, or maybe PBS, not sure. It showed Irene Pepperberg asking him to identify various pieces of plastic that were in different colors and shapes. She'd say, "Which one is the blue square?" And he'd peck at it (or maybe pick it up, I don't remember). "Which is the red circle?" etc. He got them all right. I remember reading an article a while later that said the remarkable thing about that was that he could keep two concepts in his mind at the same time: color and shape. Not all animals can do that. That was amazing enough, but the thing that impressed me the most was when he started saying, "Wanna go chair. Wanna go chair." Irene said, "Oh, you want to go to your chair? OK." She moved him to the back of "his" chair, and he stopped talking about that. To me that showed that he was able to express a wish, that originated from him, using language. It's one thing when an animal recognizes a sound pattern and understands the idea or object that sound is associated with. Dogs and cats can do that, too. But he was able to express his own thoughts using words. He wasn't just mimicking sounds. He knew which sounds to use to express an idea that he was having. The most amazing thing for me was his intraction with Dr. Pepperberg, and the other parrots. He would sometimes seem to get bored with his lesons, and it was obvious that he would start messing with her, answering wrong on purpose. He'd also tell her to "Relax!" when she would insist! Reminded me of my brother as a teenager, talking to our dad. Also, he would order the other parrots to "Talk better" when they started underachieving, too. A truly amazing little bird. Dr. Pepperberg must be wrecked. That's a really close relationship. They get purrs from us. |
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