Alex the African Grey Parrot Dies 242
grrlscientist writes "Yesterday, I received the devastating news that Alex the African Grey parrot, who was both a study subject and colleague to Irene Pepperberg, died unexpectedly at 31 years of age. 'Even though Alex was a research animal, he was much more than that. This species of parrot generally lives to be 50-60 years old, so Alex was only middle-aged when he died. According to some reports I have read, it is possible that Alex might have succumbed to Aspergillosis, a fungal infection of the lungs that he has battled in the past. However, the cause of death will not be known until after a necropsy has been completed... Alex's veterinarian is returning from vacation to personally conduct this necrospy.'"
Re:What the Hell? (Score:1, Interesting)
This is newsworthy to any science geek worth his/her salt. The fact that you think it isn't says more about your own sad lack of understanding than anything else.
Slashdot isn't all about P2P, wifi and linux you know. Perhaps you shouldn't be just about those things either. It may make you a better person in the long run.
Birds live long (Score:2, Interesting)
obHomer: Mmmmmm.... peppered bird...
As a parrot owner, sad news (Score:5, Interesting)
Although parrots have small neocortexes, they are clever little creatures. Brady has good analytic (puzzle solving) abilities, but his long term memory seems to be limited to things that he has been exposed to many times - this is just my own opinion, not backed up by any scientific research.
I work at home and can frequently give our parrot attention during the day - please don't even consider getting a parrot unless either your family can give it frequent attention and play time every day, or get a mated pair that can keep each other company. We find that we can't really leave rady in a room by himself, so we move him to where ever we are in the house, or better yet, just let him run/fly around (also known as running amuck
A problem with parrots is that they do bite - I get a good bite every month or two, but I try to not let it hurt my feelings. I could probably avoid most bites by not handling Brady when I know that he is pissed off, but why bother.
Re:Elsewhere, (Score:4, Interesting)
However, in one sense, the idea that it's not unusual for large groups of miners to die due to insufficient safety measures...is itself newsworthy.
Banerry (Score:4, Interesting)
The coolest bit was that he invented a word for an apple (banerry)
based on its similarities in color and taste to fruits he knew.
Re:Cue the... (Score:5, Interesting)
Reading about this broke my heart. As a parrot owner myself, you hope that your bird outlives you. And yet, in some ways, they're just so delicate. You can't take a nap next to your parrot because you might roll onto it. You have to keep their wings clipped, or they might fly into a ceiling fan, or a burner, or escape (which in most places is a death sentence due to hawks, inclement weather, etc). You have to be very careful when using teflon, because the fumes from overheating teflon are very poisonous to parrots. You have to be careful about smoke of all kinds, because they tend to perch high and are sensitive to smoke (all birds are sensitive to bad air due to their highly efficient lungs -- hence a "canary in a coal mine"). You can't give them caffine, chocolate, avocado, and all sorts of other things. And on and on. I once read about a person who had raised an African Grey for a decade, and got it a mate. After a long time, they finally bred, and at long last, the chicks hatched. He was so happy for them, and wanted them to keep their strength up, so he picked them an avocado off his tree. Didn't know they were poisonous to parrots. Came back an hour later, and the whole family was dying.
It's so easy to grow attached to a parrot as you would a child. You know, when you have a dog or a cat, they have their own world. You love them, but they're a different species, and they never really attempt to blur the line. A dog happily sticks its head in a bowl of dog food, runs around with a wagging tail, sniffs other dogs, and in general has its own little world. Parrots tend to live in your world. Mal, my amazon (named after Mal from Firefly), takes part in our life. He goes with us when we go outside, and even on the plane when we travel cross country (he's small enough to take as carry-on). He eats off our plates, the same food we eat, every meal (we're vegetarians; our diet is very similar to his natural diet). You don't "pet" him -- if he wants to be scratched, he'll let you, but he's just as likely to want to "scratch" (preen) you back. . It's a mutual social relationship, not a relationship where you only give. He goes to the bathroom on command (although he still has the occasional accident). He asks for up when he wants it ("I want up"). He invented a tradition of kissing before meals when he's really happy (rather than walk straight to the food, he walks over to us and says "Kiss!" and then kisses us). When he does something wrong that we've taught him is wrong, he often tries to hide it, just like a little kid. He solves puzzles better than children his age -- seriously. At just six months old, he figured how to get at an inaccessible treat ball by grabbing it by its support rope, hauling the rope to a safe spot, and wrapping it in place so it would stay while he ate. He can take apart wooden clothespins in less than 15 seconds, unbutton the clasps on my shirts, and once even removed the hinge pin to take apart a kitchen magnet (took us a half hour to get it back together -- we only gave it to him because we didn't see a way *we* could have taken it apart). He even addresses us by name -- I kid you not. I'm "Kareh" (Karen), and my partner is "Elay" (Elaine). If I'm fixing dinner, and he's getting impatient, I'll invariably hear, "Kareh! I want up!" If the wrong person tries to pick him up, he gets angry.
Yet, he's just a year and a half old. Like a Grey, he should live to be 50-60.
When something knows your name, it's hard not to see them as a family member... I really feel for Dr. Pepperberg and her staff right now.
Re:Alex was cool. (Score:3, Interesting)
The last 4 paragraphs read thusly:
There are some things that the birds do that, colloquially speaking, "just blow us away." We were training Alex to sound out phonemes, not because we want him to read as humans do, but we want to see if he understands that his labels are made up of sounds that can be combined in different ways to make up new words; that is, to demonstrate evidence for segmentation. He babbles at dusk, producing strings like "green, cheen, bean, keen", so we have some evidence for this behavior, but we need more solid data.
Thus we are trying to get him to sound out refrigerator letters, the same way one would train children on phonics. We were doing demos at the Media Lab for our corporate sponsors; we had a very small amount of time scheduled and the visitors wanted to see Alex work. So we put a number of differently colored letters on the tray that we use, put the tray in front of Alex, and asked, "Alex, what sound is blue?" He answers, "Ssss." It was an "s", so we say "Good birdie" and he replies, "Want a nut."
Well, I don't want him sitting there using our limited amount of time to eat a nut, so I tell him to wait, and I ask, "What sound is green?" Alex answers, "Ssshh." He's right, it's "sh," and we go through the routine again: "Good parrot." "Want a nut." "Alex, wait. What sound is orange?" "ch." "Good bird!" "Want a nut." We're going on and on and Alex is clearly getting more and more frustrated. He finally gets very slitty-eyed and he looks at me and states, "Want a nut. Nnn, uh, tuh."
Not only could you imagine him thinking, "Hey, stupid, do I have to spell it for you?" but the point was that he had leaped over where we were and had begun sounding out the letters of the words for us. This was in a sense his way of saying to us, "I know where you're headed! Let's get on with it," which gave us the feeling that we were on the right track with what we were doing. These kinds of things don't happen in the lab on a daily basis, but when they do, they make you realize there's a lot more going on inside these little walnut-sized brains than you might at first imagine.
No offense but (Score:1, Interesting)
These creatures were meant to fly free in their native rain forests, not to languish in cages, regardless of your anthropomorphizing. I've been working in East Africa for the past several years and have seen first hand the results of the horrible practices of raiding the last few intact habitats for the pet trade. Everything is for sale, from exotic fresh water fish, to birds, rare butterflies, pretty much anything and everything. This trade contributes and hastens the destruction of these habitats forever.
In Kenya I used to marvel at the diversity of exotic birds that congregated in my garden, from the majestic eagles and kites, to the brightly coloured sunbirds, the odd Ibis or Kingfisher.
Then I had an idiot neighbor that had some kind of parrot locked up in a cage that would squauk all day, poor bastard. Parrots in Kenya are becoming rarer and rarer...all because some people on the other side of the world think its cool to "own" one.
Re:No offense but (Score:3, Interesting)
The funniest was when he first began to learn sounds (before he learned to speak). He would pick up on sounds that got attention. He learned that the sound of the phone ringing would cause people to run into the room. So, when he got lonely (he HATED being alone unless he was asleep), he would do a pitch-perfect imitation of the phone. It was cute, if a little annoying (he got so good at it, it was impossible to tell the difference between him and the real phone).