Alex the Genius Parrot

Alex was an African grey parrot working with Dr. Irene Pepperberg to prove how smart birds can be. She wrote that Alex's intelligence was on a level similar to dolphins and great apes. Alex had a vocabulary of over 100 words, and understood their meaning. He could identify 50 different objects and recognize quantities up to six; that he could distinguish seven colors and five shapes, and understand the concepts of "bigger", "smaller", "same", and "different". He also understood the concept of nothing or zero, replying "none" when appropriate. He was an Einstein of birds, and a remarkable proof of animal intelligence. RIP, little fella.

[paigetomlin]

before he died, his last words were “you be good. i love you”

[zappababe]

That was ingenious, using a rival to get Alex to want to play the game, and win praise for answering correctly. He obviously got a lot of praise. Alex was actually asking questions, AFAIK the apes who have been taught sign language never initiate conversations by signing, and never ask questions. It was always in response to the human signing at them. I think Alex had a very happy life, and he obviously got a lot of attention. In general, I'm not a fan of people keeping such an intelligent bird in a cage, when they should be free to fly around the Amazon Rainforest with all their avian friends. However, I think Alex enjoyed his time with his teacher, and she clearly loved and cared about him. Goodnight Alex, be good, I love you. I hope you're happy in Parrot Heaven now

[ramajatayu]

my heart... was reading on FB and searching here..Alex last word "you be good, see you tomorrow, I love you"

[johnpanicker]

I cried reading his wikipedia article. Rest in piece birdie

[merindhital]

His last words were "You be good, see you tomorrow, I love you"

[lynnm]

Interesting study. However, I was a bit shocked to see the page small metal cage that Alex slept in?

[celticwarrior]

I just bought his book. Its nice to actually see him on video

[Tulip]

ببغاء مميز حقاً
لقد بكيت في اللحظة التي قالت أنها و أليكس كانوا ككل ليلية ، ودعوا بعضهم و عندما أستيقظت وجدته ميتاً ، هذا محزن حقاً ، لكن أليكس سيبقى حياً في القلوب .

[wildoutstandingworld]

The guys name at 9:08 is Shitler thats pretty amazing

[bloodaid]

What's more fascinating to me is that humans honestly think that animals don't understand what's same and what's different 💀

[runforitman]

I wish we couldve seen the full potential of this experiment

[alessiamansouri]

The thing is she kept that bird in a tiny cage with almost nothing in it when she wasn’t in the lab and as you can see he had stress and was bored and found the testing stressful as he started self harming via removing feathers

[josiprakonca]

Poor bird, he was depressive, he pulled his feathers. :(

[magatsu]

Scientist: you are so special, I love you Alex. Now go sleep in your small steel cage

[ForeverAbroad]

I actually felt sad knowing he died and was so close to her. I've never cared so much about an animal I've never met and is already dead 😭😂

[fsrarsln]

I wonder what happens if bring another bird next to alex and let it watch alex ehile educate and gaining some rewards

[walid]

Why does a parrot strip its feathers? And what we can do to let him stop this?

[alpatalan]

His vocabulary is around the one of a 20 month old toddler.

[satyampawar]

I saw Alex book when Apollo said book. Apollo is like Alex.

[helloneighbor]

when he says “I love you “ does he really feel that ? does he really loves her ?