In 1977 Irene Pepperberg, a recent graduate of Harvard University, did something very bold. At a time when animals were still considered automatons, she set out to find out what was on another creature's mind by talking to it. She brought a one year old African gray parrot she named Alex into her lab to teach him to reproduce the sounds of the English language.
"I thought if he learned to communicate, I could ask him questions about how he sees the world."
When Pepperberg began her dialogue with Alex, who died last September at the age of 31, many scientists believed animals were incapable of any thought. They were simply machines, robots programmed to react to stimuli but lacking the ability to think or feel. Any pet owner would disagree.
How, then, does a scientist prove that an animal is capable of thinking---that it is able to acquire information about the world and act on it?
"That's why I started my studies with Alex," Pepperberg said. They were seated --- she at her desk, he on top of his cage --- in her lab, a windowless room about the size of a boxcar, at Brandeis University.
"Don't be a smart aleck," Pepperberg said, shaking her head at him. "He knows all this, and he gets bored, so he interrupts the others or he gives the wrong answer just to be obstinate. At this stage, he's like a teenage son; he's moody, and I'm never sure what he'll do."
"Wanna go tree," Alex said in a tiny voice.
Alex had lived his entire life in captivity, but he knew that beyond the lab's door, there was a hallway and a tall window framing a leafy elm tree. He liked to see the tree, so Pepperberg put her hand out for him to climb aboard. She walked him down the hall into the tree's green light.
"Good boy! Good birdie," Alex said, bobbing on her hand.
"Yes, you're a good boy. You're a good birdie." And she kissed his feathered head.
He was a good birdie until the end, and Pepperberg was happy to report that when he died he had finally mastered "seven."
Please note: A very condensed version of the article.
Morell, Virginia. "Mind Of Thier Own" National Geographic (2008): 36-61.
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In the letters page of the July 2008 issue of National Geographic, Maggie Raczek from Portland, Oregon writes:
How incredibly sad. Irene Pepperberg spends 30 years trying to communicate with Alex, an African gray parrot, so she can ask "how he sees the world." When she succeeds and hears,
"Wanna go tree,"
she denies what appears to be a plea for freedom. We need to find a way to study these amazing animals and allow them to live the lives that nature intended.
