![]() ![]() Dr Pepperberg, her research and her parrot became international celebrities, subjects of innumerable magazine articles, chat show interviews and documentaries. Irene Pepperberg, Alex and later additions Griffin and Alo, proved that not only could birds learn language, they are capable of complex thought – Alex could add, spell out words, could understand concepts like bigger/smaller, more/less, none. When their research began birds (and non-human mammals) were not thought to be intelligent enough to do anything more than mimic, or “parrot”, spoken words. She acquired Alex in 1977 and spent the next 30 years studying him. ![]() She graduated from university with a chemistry degree but realised chemistry was not her passion, animal linguistic/cognition studies were. Irene Pepperberg has had birds for pets since she was 4 years old. I recovered during the bulk of the book only to break down again at the end as Irene Pepperberg describes Alex’s last days and his legacy to her and to science. The first chapter, full of tributes to Alex the parrot, had me a wet, snotty mess in no time. ![]() I started to blub before I even opened it, reading the blurb. I started reading this book on the weekend. On 6 September 2007, an African Grey parrot named Alex died prematurely at age thrity-one. The blurb on the back of Alex and Me sucked me in as it came into Catalouging: ![]()
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