Alex has passed away.

[DirtDawg]

No, dummy!

Alex, the African Grey parrot.





Alex the African Grey parrot and subject of landmark studies of bird intelligence dies at 31

[Callaway]

That's so sad.

He was in good health two weeks ago and they can't find out why he died.

[duncvis]

Dammit Dawg! You got my hopes up. 

[Lucifer]

the disappointment is almost killing.   

[Natalia Evans]

I thought you were talking about Alex Plank at first and I thought "Is that some kind of joke?"

[DirtDawg]

That's so sad.

He was in good health two weeks ago and they can't find out why he died.

It is sad. I hope the foundation continues. As far as I know, they are doing good work.

It seems strange that there is no Cause of Death discovered, yet.

I often follow the oddest things in the news, but animals always attract my attention and, like GA mentioned, they usuallly get a little extra empathy.

[DirtDawg]

Dammit Dawg! You got my hopes up. 

My kids would call it a "gotcha."

[QuirkyCarla]

I thought you were talking about Alex Plank at first and I thought "Is that some kind of joke?"

I thought the same thing. 

[odeon]

i thought that too.

[Calandale]

Shit. Wonder if he was an oddity?
And if it effected his life span.

[DirtDawg]

I would love to have the answers to those questions and many more, as well.
The tests conducted with this little guy created a whole new way of thinking about birds and once dinosaurs were believed to be ttheir ancestors, a new way of hypothesizing about their behavior arose. The intelligent dinosaurs, despite smallish brains, arose in speculation.

Studies of Alex's memory and intelligence shook things up a bit. If he was unique, the other birds would probably have murdered him, long ago.

[Calandale]

Still, when you see what Ravens can do,
it's pretty scary. The big deal with Alex
was that there was empirical evidence.
BUT, there were questions as to whether
his researcher was cheating, even subconsciously.

But he was pretty, and that's all that really matters.

[DirtDawg]

Still, when you see what Ravens can do,
it's pretty scary. The big deal with Alex
was that there was empirical evidence.
BUT, there were questions as to whether
his researcher was cheating, even subconsciously.

But he was pretty, and that's all that really matters.

Ravens may be more advanced than some, but I have an enormous respect for the birds of prey. They are more intelligent than science accepts, I believe. They are also like typical predators, though, in that they are most difficult to test and create "empirical evidence" to support this. Observation is only the beginning of scientific analysis and without a system of continuing predictability, the science breaks down into conjecture. Birds of prey are not very predictable, within our methods.

Many scientists are "birds" and birds that eat birds freak out most other birds. We need to do some more predatory science.

[Calandale]

Interesting point about the birds of prey.
They SEEM to have very close bondings,
when forced to.

But, one wonders how much they actually
have a need to develop intelligence. This
is the nub of why most predators are just
dismissed. Yes, we don't have an accurate
way of measuring, but we also don't see why
they'd need the trait. They are usually really
specialized killing machines, and investing in
intelligence seems less productive.

But, with octopi, it's been made clear that they
are far more intelligent than one might assume.

[Gluey]

When I was a little girl I had a parrot just like that. His name was Wally and he would imitate the noise of the coffee maker and he could talk a little bit.