Lifestyle13

A gifted parrot that could count to six, identify colors and even express frustration has died after 30 years of helping researchers better understand the avian brain.  Alex, was an African Grey Parrot.

A scientist bought Alex from an animal shop in 1973.  He then learned enough English to identify 50 different objects, seven colors, and five shapes. He could count up to six, including zero, was able to express desires, including his frustration.

He also would tell two other parrots at the lab to “talk better” if they mumbled.

Scientist, Irene Pepperberg, said Alex hadn’t reached his full cognitive potential yet.  Just last month he pronounced the word “seven” for the first time.

The cause of Alex’s death was unknown. The African Grey parrot’s average life span is 50 years.  Pepperberg left Alex by going through their goodnight routine with her saying  it was time to go in the cage and saying: “You be good, I love you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Alex responded, “You’ll be in tomorrow.”

Permalink | Trackback URI | Home

If you enjoyed reading this post, consider subscribing to our full feed RSS

Some other posts you might like:

No related posts