It is not unusal to write an obituary when a great scientist passes away. It is much more unusual to do so when a lab animal does so. But when that animal is not just an experimental subject, but also a friend, colleague, teacher and collaborator, than the species boundaries lose importance. And Alex, the famous African Grey Parrot, was just that, and more, to Irene Pepperberg and to the entire field of cognitive ethology. He died yesterday, unexpectedly, at the age of 31 (about half the normal life expectancy for the species) and he will be sorely missed. You can send donations, that will assure the research goes on with Alex's younger buddies Griffin and Wart, to the Alex Foundation.
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tags: Alex, African grey parrot, Psittacus erithacus, cognition, learning, speech disabilities, Irene Pepperberg
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He was not ours, he was not mine.
Thank you for sharing him with us.
He brought us much joy. We loved him well.
-- Irene Pepperberg (p. 226), modified from Karen Blixen's…
tags: Alex, African grey parrot, Psittacus erithacus, cognition, learning, speech disabilities, Irene Pepperberg
Alex, the African grey parrot, Psittacus erithacus,
who worked with Irene Pepperberg for more than 30 years.
Image: Illustration by Andrew Kuo, Photograph by John Woo.
An article…
I am indentured to two of Alex's tribe, whom I love without qualification. It was Irene's extraordinary explorations with Alex that finally and utterly demolished the flimsy conventional wisdom about our fellow species in my mind. Living with CAGs has convinced me that they are sentient beings, deeply emotional, and worse, emotionally fragile.
My breaking heart goes out to Irene, her lab, and all who dealt with this amazing emissary from the elder tribes.