Alex (African gray parrot)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alex (hatched approx. 1976 ; died September 6, 2007 ) was a gray parrot whose usage of the word was intensively investigated over a period of 30 years by the animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg , first at the University of Arizona and most recently at Brandeis University . The name is an acronym for A vian L earning EX periment (Engl. For "bird learning experiment").

Alex's language ability

After the 19 years of training Alex had an active vocabulary of 200 words he could utter, and a vocabulary of about 500 words that he could understand. In addition, he could - to a limited extent - count and express his own wishes. For example, if Alex no longer liked the question-and-answer game, he would say, “I'm gonna go away”, and if the researcher was angry, Alex would try the situation with “I'm sorry” (I am sorry sorry) to defuse. If he had asked for a banana via “Wanna banana” but was offered a nut, he would look in front of himself in silence, repeat the request for a banana or take the nut and throw it at the researcher with his beak. Alex's understanding of numbers was in the range of under 7. When asked how many objects of a certain color were on a board, he gave the correct answer 80% of the time.

death

Alex died on September 6, 2007 at the age of 31. A press release from the Alex Foundation formulated the circumstances of death as follows: “Alex was found to be in good health at his most recent annual physical about two weeks [before his death]. According to the veterinarian who conducted the necropsy, there was no obvious cause of death. ”On the occasion of Alex's untimely death, Pepperberg announced that his loss would by no means end the research, but that the death caused a setback. The research laboratory has two other parrots, but their abilities cannot be compared to Alex.

The Alex Foundation announced the results of the pathological investigations on October 4, 2007 as follows:

“Alex died quickly. He had a sudden, unexpected event associated with arteriosclerosis (“hardening of the arteries”). It was either a fatal arrhythmia, heart attack or stroke, which caused him to die suddenly with no suffering. There was no way to predict his demise. All of his tests, including his cholesterol level and asper levels, came back normal earlier that week. His death could not be connected to his current diet or his age; Our veterinarian said that she has seen similar events in young (less than 10 year old) birds on healthy diets. Most likely, genetics or the same kind of low-level (impossible to detect in birds as yet) inflammatory disease that is related to heart disease in humans was responsible. "

“Alex died quickly. Sudden and unexpected complications related to arteriosclerosis ("hardening of the arteries") had occurred. It was either a fatal arrhythmia, a heart attack, or a stroke that resulted in his sudden death without suffering. There were no omens for his death. All tests including cholesterol and Asper levels were normal by the beginning of that week. Nor could his death be linked to his diet or his age; our vet said she had seen similar occurrences in younger birds (younger than 10 years old) with healthy diets. Genetic predispositions or inflammatory diseases currently undiagnosed in birds were likely responsible; similar to those that lead to heart disease in humans. "

- Alex Foundation

literature

  • Pepperberg, IM: Alex and me. The unique friendship between a Harvard researcher and the smartest bird in the world . mvg Verlag, 2009, ISBN 3-86882-026-4

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ask the Scientists: Irene Pepperberg Q&A . Retrieved September 11, 2007.
  2. ↑ a b Alex the African Gray. Science's best known parrot died on September 6th, aged 31. In: The Economist . September 20, 2007, accessed August 7, 2014 .
  3. ^ David Chandler: Farewell to a famous parrot. Alex, who could talk and count, dies on September 31, 2007, accessed August 7, 2014 .