Watch Your Language Blog

R.I.P. Alex, the talking parrot

The New York Times reports on the death of the famous talking parrot Alex, who knew more than a hundred English words, could count, and recognize colors and shapes:

Alex showed surprising facility. For example, when shown a blue paper triangle, he could tell an experimenter what color the paper was, what shape it was, and — after touching it — what it was made of. He demonstrated some of his skills on nature shows, including programs on PBS and the BBC. He shared scenes with the actor Alan Alda on the PBS series "Look Who's Talking."

As parrots can, he also picked up one-liners from hanging around the lab, like "calm down" and "good morning." He could express frustration, or apparent boredom, and his cognitive and language skills appeared to be about as competent as those in trained primates. His accomplishments have also inspired further work with African gray parrots; two others, named Griffin and Arthur, are a part of Dr. Pepperberg's continuing research program.


September 12, 2007