Alex the African Grey Parrot Dies

grrlscientist writes "Yesterday, I received the devastating news that Alex the African Grey parrot, who was both a study subject and colleague to Irene Pepperberg, died unexpectedly at 31 years of age. 'Even though Alex was a research animal, he was much more than that. This species of parrot generally lives to be 50-60 years old, so Alex was only middle-aged when he died. According to some reports I have read, it is possible that Alex might have succumbed to Aspergillosis, a fungal infection of the lungs that he has battled in the past. However, the cause of death will not be known until after a necropsy has been completed... Alex's veterinarian is returning from vacation to personally conduct this necrospy.'"

Comments

Cue the...

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone who makes a comment about pining for the fjords gets a slap.

Re:Cue the...

[Rei]

Well... it has more significance with some species than others. Greys are notorious for feather plucking. It's not a good sign, but greys can develop it even out of habit. Now, if you see an amazon that's all plucked, that means that something is seriously not right.

Reading about this broke my heart. As a parrot owner myself, you hope that your bird outlives you. And yet, in some ways, they're just so delicate. You can't take a nap next to your parrot because you might roll onto it. You have to keep their wings clipped, or they might fly into a ceiling fan, or a burner, or escape (which in most places is a death sentence due to hawks, inclement weather, etc). You have to be very careful when using teflon, because the fumes from overheating teflon are very poisonous to parrots. You have to be careful about smoke of all kinds, because they tend to perch high and are sensitive to smoke (all birds are sensitive to bad air due to their highly efficient lungs -- hence a "canary in a coal mine"). You can't give them caffine, chocolate, avocado, and all sorts of other things. And on and on. I once read about a person who had raised an African Grey for a decade, and got it a mate. After a long time, they finally bred, and at long last, the chicks hatched. He was so happy for them, and wanted them to keep their strength up, so he picked them an avocado off his tree. Didn't know they were poisonous to parrots. Came back an hour later, and the whole family was dying.

It's so easy to grow attached to a parrot as you would a child. You know, when you have a dog or a cat, they have their own world. You love them, but they're a different species, and they never really attempt to blur the line. A dog happily sticks its head in a bowl of dog food, runs around with a wagging tail, sniffs other dogs, and in general has its own little world. Parrots tend to live in your world. Mal, my amazon (named after Mal from Firefly), takes part in our life. He goes with us when we go outside, and even on the plane when we travel cross country (he's small enough to take as carry-on). He eats off our plates, the same food we eat, every meal (we're vegetarians; our diet is very similar to his natural diet). You don't "pet" him -- if he wants to be scratched, he'll let you, but he's just as likely to want to "scratch" (preen) you back. . It's a mutual social relationship, not a relationship where you only give. He goes to the bathroom on command (although he still has the occasional accident). He asks for up when he wants it ("I want up"). He invented a tradition of kissing before meals when he's really happy (rather than walk straight to the food, he walks over to us and says "Kiss!" and then kisses us). When he does something wrong that we've taught him is wrong, he often tries to hide it, just like a little kid. He solves puzzles better than children his age -- seriously. At just six months old, he figured how to get at an inaccessible treat ball by grabbing it by its support rope, hauling the rope to a safe spot, and wrapping it in place so it would stay while he ate. He can take apart wooden clothespins in less than 15 seconds, unbutton the clasps on my shirts, and once even removed the hinge pin to take apart a kitchen magnet (took us a half hour to get it back together -- we only gave it to him because we didn't see a way *we* could have taken it apart). He even addresses us by name -- I kid you not. I'm "Kareh" (Karen), and my partner is "Elay" (Elaine). If I'm fixing dinner, and he's getting impatient, I'll invariably hear, "Kareh! I want up!" If the wrong person tries to pick him up, he gets angry.

Yet, he's just a year and a half old. Like a Grey, he should live to be 50-60.

When something knows your name, it's hard not to see them as a family member... I really feel for Dr. Pepperberg and her staff right now.

Re:Uhm...

[Rebelgecko]

by BlueParrot (965239) on Sunday September 09, @12:18PM (#20530525)
Ok... *still trying to figure out how this is newsworthy* I know, I know.. I'm new here... As one of his fellow parrots, you should be very familiar with Alex. You should not let minor differences such as the color of your feathers get in the way of appreciating the scientific contributions of another parrot. Be tolerant of different-colored parrots, it's what Alex would have wanted.

Re:Uhm...

[MBCook]

You must not know much about this. Alex was an incredible bird. I've seen him on TV a couple of times. Many birds can repeat things. Some might even be able to associate (say specifically ask for food).

Alex, though hard training and probably natural ability was far beyond that. He knew tons of words. He could answer simple questions and interpret human language. I remember seeing videos of them giving him a little toy car and asking him what it was, to which he responded "truck" (close enough). He did this with a couple of objects. They could ask him what color an object was and he could tell you.

Check out the Wikipedia article on him.

This is news, like Washoe dying would be news (is Washoe still alive?)

Alex was cool.

[FlatCatInASlatVat]

I met him once. He really was a remarkable bird and could use language for communication, not just mimicry. He would answer all sorts of question about objects that you showed him. Some errors, of course, but correct responses way above chance. Together with all the reports over the last few years about tool-making and using in crows, it makes you have a lot more respect for birds. Makes me think of watching crows play and tumble on a strong, turbulent wind or pelican "surf" the air just in front of a nice clean wave. Awesome.

For the sake of completeness...

[E 99]

Dead Parrot Sketch

The cast:

MR. PRALINE
John Cleese
SHOP OWNER
Michael Palin

The sketch:

A customer enters a pet shop.

Mr. Praline: 'Ello, I wish to register a complaint.

(The owner does not respond.)

Mr. Praline: 'Ello, Miss?

Owner: What do you mean "miss"?

Mr. Praline: I'm sorry, I have a cold. I wish to make a complaint!

Owner: We're closin' for lunch.

Mr. Praline: Never mind that, my lad. I wish to complain about this parrot what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very boutique.

Owner: Oh yes, the, uh, the Norwegian Blue...What's,uh...What's wrong with it?

Mr. Praline: I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. 'E's dead, that's what's wrong with it!

Owner: No, no, 'e's uh,...he's resting.

Mr. Praline: Look, matey, I know a dead parrot when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.

Owner: No no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage!

Mr. Praline: The plumage don't enter into it. It's stone dead.

Owner: Nononono, no, no! 'E's resting!

Mr. Praline: All right then, if he's restin', I'll wake him up! (shouting at the cage) 'Ello, Mister Polly Parrot! I've got a lovely fresh cuttle fish for you if you
show...

(owner hits the cage)

Owner: There, he moved!

Mr. Praline: No, he didn't, that was you hitting the cage!

Owner: I never!!

Mr. Praline: Yes, you did!

Owner: I never, never did anything...

Mr. Praline: (yelling and hitting the cage repeatedly) 'ELLO POLLY!!!!! Testing! Testing! Testing! Testing! This is your nine o'clock alarm call!

(Takes parrot out of the cage and thumps its head on the counter. Throws it up in the air and watches it plummet to the floor.)

Mr. Praline: Now that's what I call a dead parrot.

Owner: No, no.....No, 'e's stunned!

Mr. Praline: STUNNED?!?

Owner: Yeah! You stunned him, just as he was wakin' up! Norwegian Blues stun easily, major.

Mr. Praline: Um...now look...now look, mate, I've definitely 'ad enough of this. That parrot is definitely deceased, and when I purchased it not 'alf an hour
ago, you assured me that its total lack of movement was due to it bein' tired and shagged out following a prolonged squawk.

Owner: Well, he's...he's, ah...probably pining for the fjords.

Mr. Praline: PININ' for the FJORDS?!?!?!? What kind of talk is that?, look, why did he fall flat on his back the moment I got 'im home?

Owner: The Norwegian Blue prefers keepin' on it's b

Re:Elsewhere,

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh please, are you trolling? Firstly slashdot isn't a general news site, secondly there's always more "worthy" news to report, if we followed those criteria all news outlets would be 24/7 death and misery ... we're near enough to that already.

Sadly a bunch of Chinese miners dying isn't particularly unusual or newsworthy, either. That's what happens when you have hardly any safety measures at all.

Pining for the fjords?

[GBC]

Finally, I can quote the "Dead Parrot Sketch" and not be off-topic!

Luckily for me, Alex died young - I don't know if I could have held out for another 19-29 years...

Re:What the Hell?

[Lemmy Caution]

For me, the sign of the decline of Slashdot isn't that they are posting articles on the death of Alex. It's that the readership thinks only articles about iPhones, CPUs and videogames are "news for nerds."

Re:Gov't had something to do with it?

[ccbailey]

Unfortunately, it seems that Alex died on the 7th and his necropsy won't be conducted until the tomorrow, the 10th. The thing about avian tissues is that they tend to autolyze rather quickly. If he really died of aspergillosis and has fungal plaques all over the lungs, air sacs, and liver then the diagnosis is a no-brainer. On the other hand, if the diagnosis requires high quality histologic sections to make- well that might be harder with three-day-dead bird tissues.

Why would anyone wait three days for his personal veterinarian to return when there are boarded veterinary pathologists at Angell and Tufts in the state who could be called in over the weekend? Seems like with a bird this famous, it would have been worth the effort to do things right.

If you want to help...

[weeboo0104]

I got the news from another member of my bird club who knew that Dr. Irene Pepperberg did a demonstration with myself and my Grey for our club a few years ago.

Irene's research was instrumental in helping understand the cognitive ability of animals (ironicly, her research started out as trying to help brain damaged humans rebuild cognitive ability through Model/Rival training).

Irene has a big heart and I know she must be crushed from this loss.
If you want to support her research with her 3 other birds (lab space and research assistants aren't free), please donate a check made payable to:

The Alex Foundation MS/062
Department of Psychology
Brandeis University
415 South Street
Waltham, MA 02454
Attn: Alex Memorial

The Alex Foundation is a 503c not-for-profit organization.