Cognitive Research Assistant Alex (the African Grey parrot) dies at 31

Alex the African Grey parrot has died at the young age of 31 (see Alex The Grey Parrot, Colleague of Irene Pepperberg, Dead at 31):

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Alex, being quite a character, quickly took over Pepperberg's life by teaching her all he knew about cognition and communication. As early as 1999, he was able to "identify 50 different objects and understand quantities up to 6; he could distinguish 7 colors and 5 shapes, and understand the concepts of 'bigger', 'smaller', 'same', and 'different', and he was learning 'over' and 'under'," according to the New York Times. By 2002, Alex had a vocabulary of more than 100 words.

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Check out the videoCelebrate the life.Enjoy.links and information.Edited by Adminnemooseus, : Added the "(the African Grey parrot)" part to the topic title.

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Thread moved here from the Proposed New Topics forum.

pretty cool to see Alan Alda narrate this. That is, it's cool to see him somewhere outside of M*A*S*H.I heard about Alex dying a while back. Seeing this video on him is definitely cool. Far better than words.Thanks for the link.

Ruby is the same kind of Parrot as the one you presented, and she is even able to mimic accents-- British in this instance.Of course, she was taught to curse incessantly, which, I have to admit, had me rolling in laughter.The greater point is how remarkable these birds are.http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=15897Edited by nemesis_juggernaut, : No reason given.

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"It is better to shun the bait, than struggle in the snare." -Ravi Zacharias

Wouldn't this be better on Science and Speech in Determining "Human" Kind?

I suppose it would. I wasn't aware that was even a topic of discussion.

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"It is better to shun the bait, than struggle in the snare." -Ravi Zacharias

I read a short news article that scientists believe that the intelligence of crows might be close to that of primates. Has anyone else read anything in depth about this - if so, what are the references - or is this just a bit of furphy.If it is true, what would this suggest for the future evolution of these birds.

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Lucy

The root article is probably - The Mentality of Crows: Convergent Evolution of Intelligence in Corvids and Apes. By: Emery, Nathan J.; Clayton, Nicola S.. Science, 12/10/2004, Vol. 306 Issue 5703, p1903-1907.

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Our review of corvid cognition suggests that these birds display similar intelligent behavior as the great apes. However, is the content of the cognitive processes based on a similar or different mental foundation? One reason why the processes may be similar is that corvids and apes face many of the same socioecological challenges, such as locating perishable food distributed in time and space or understanding the relationships between different individuals within large social groups. We suggest that these environmental problems are solved by using four cognitive tools that have driven the evolution of complex cognition in corvids and apes: causal reasoning, flexibility, imagination, and prospection.

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You may have picked up on this or a restatement of the findings in the popular press. They will no doubt continue to adapt to an increasingly human controlled environment. Beyond that, who knows?

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Read not to contradict and confute, not to believe and take for granted, not to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider - Francis BaconThe more we understand particular things, the more we understand God - Spinoza

AnglagardThank you very much for the reference.I found the following which also has a video. If you are interested in animal behavourism and IQ you might like to look at at.Bait-Fishing in Crows by Oren Hasson
Animal Intelligence - Birds' Mind: Bait-Fishing Crows

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Lucy