African Grey Parrots

We have an African Grey Timneh (parrot), and I'm always amazed by how bright she is. We've had her for eleven years, since she was 10 weeks old. We are constantly amazed by how aware she is of everything going on in the house, how funny she is, and how she can contribute to any discussion with her comments or her laughter. She is very definitely opinionated and makes her opinions known. She was part of the gang on our recent tour of Newfoundland and adapted to life in the truck and the trailer just fine.

So, I was saddened to hear that Alex had died on Monday. Most people who have parrots for companions know of Alex, the African Grey Congo parrot. He was a brilliant 31 year old, who had worked with Dr. Irene Pepperberg at Harvard University for 30 years. He was known to correct other parrots being trained by saying "Speak clearly!"

From the website:





"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."


Alex's Website