Alex and Me***Irene Pepperberg's memoir about her life with Alex (left with two other friends), an African gray parrot whose linguistic skills she studied for decades, is fascinating and sometimes heartbreaking. Alex died a few years ago, and that's sad, but the heartbreaking part is how much Pepperberg got jacked around by the established scientific community that resisted experiments that seemed to indicate that birds were not bird brains.
Pepperberg lived largely on measly grants, poorly paid temporary adjunct appointments, and borrowed lab space that was less than ideal. Yet, she amassed evidence that clearly indicated Alex was not merely mimicking sounds but using language to communicate with her. Alex didn't just follow word commands, he used words to express his preferences ("Want nut!") and make up words ("cork nut" for "almond").
Alex also seemed to show the same ability to solve puzzles that Berndt Heinrich's studies of crows and ravens showed.
None of this will seem out of the ordinary to anyone who has ever had an animal. But it bears out what my mother-in-law always said about housepets: "They ain't dumb."
See a short clip about Alex and Pepperberg.
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