Alex & Me by Irene Pepperberg
A Scientist, a Parrot and a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence
Jan 26, 2009
Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence - And Forged a Deep Bond in the Process (Published by Harper Collins, Copyright Irene Pepperberg 2008, ISBN: 978-0-06-167247-7) is Dr. Irene Pepperberg's very personal memoir about the relationship she shared with a very special African Grey Parrot, Alex. Alex was known world wide as the most intelligent bird in the world, and likely the most famous as well.
Alex could count, differentiate shapes and colours and even understand the concept of zero, something that Western mathematics didn't figure out until after the dark ages. Pepperberg and Alex contributed immeasurably to the study of animal behavior and the understanding of non-human intelligence. Had Alex not died nearly two decades earlier than the average for his species, it is difficult to imagine the limits of what he might have taught the world about bird brains.
Tragedy
On September 6, 2007, Alex was found dead in his cage, at the age of 31. Most healthy African Grey parrots live into their 50's, so Alex's death was a shock. More than a shock, it was a scientific tragedy. As the most well known of her study subjects, Alex was not only an incredibly well loved public figure, but he also represented the best of the work that Pepperberg had done in the study of non-human intelligence. Year after year, Alex kept learning how to do things that birds are simply not supposed to be able to do and in doing so his accomplishments reshaped the way that science looks at animal intelligence.
Had he lived, there is little doubt that Alex would have continued to stretch the limits of what humans believe animals are capable of.
Triumph
Thanks to thirty years of tireless effort and the amazing abilities of her first test subject, Pepperberg is today among the most respected and sought after scientists in her field. The morning Alex died, Pepperberg received word that a European project on the evolution of language that she was involved with, ITALK, had just received approval for funding. From a very humble beginning with one bird and a lot of skeptical colleagues, Pepperberg and Alex had risen to prominence.
Despite his tragic demise, Alex's legacy remains. The Alex Foundation is dedicated to funding studies on animal intelligence that carry on in the tradition begun by Pepperberg with her first study subject, Alex.
The Science and the Bond
While Alex & Me details a great deal of the science accomplished by Pepperberg, Alex and her team of graduate students, the amazing part of the story is buried within that science. In teaching Alex concepts like colour and shape, he was exposed to many people and thus had a great deal of human interaction, possibly more than any parrot in history. Thanks to that interaction, Alex developed not only the skills that the team was attempting to teach, but many other skills as well, including the ability to manipulate the humans around him.
Despite Pepperberg's best efforts to maintain a degree of scientific detachment, every page of Alex & Me reveals a deep emotional bond that Pepperberg herself was almost unaware of until Alex's passing. Having spent most of her adult life in his company, that is little surprising to anyone, except perhaps Pepperberg herself. Her memoir is at once wistful, witty, poignant, truimphant and profoundly sad, as only love can be.
There is little doubt that when Alex the African Grey parrot died, science lost one of its leading voices.
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