About Me

My photo
Oregon, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Friday, March 14, 2008

"come here, i love you"

Remember that story a few years back about the bird who, when left by its person with the vet, said clearly, "Come here, I love you, I'm sorry, I want to go back" ? *

That was Alex. Alex died in September 2007, aged 31. His name was short for Avian Learning Experiment, and that experiment lasted his life long since his purchase at age one by animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg. Pepperberg's work indicated strongly that birds had learning and reasoning capacities, as well as emotional ones. His foundation is continued by his parrot buddies Griffin and Wart.

His last words to Pepperberg as she put him "to bed" were, "You be good. I love you...You'll be in tomorrow."

*Probably what Zozo was trying to tell me, too...sigh

2 comments:

parlance said...

That's a fascinating posting. Have you also read about the parrots that live in the snowy mountains of New Zealand and are phenomenally intelligent? The kea.

Anonymous said...

Oh so that's what kea are! I've heard they were a bird in New Zealand - I got them confused with another specie, though. -- Curator, writing from elsewhere