Alex the Parrot and the Hidden World of Animal Intelligence

Alex the Par­rot spent his days work­ing with ani­mal psy­chol­o­gist Irene Pep­per­berg at Har­vard and Bran­deis. And, along the way, he upend­ed the belief held by many sci­en­tists that birds lack basic intel­li­gence and can only mim­ic words, and not real­ly use them in any mean­ing­ful way. As you’ll see below, Alex (who died in 2007 at the age of 31) could talk and do much more. To learn more about Alex, you can lis­ten to an extend­ed inter­view with Pep­per­berg here, or get her well-reviewed book Alex & Me: How a Sci­en­tist and a Par­rot Uncov­ered a Hid­den World of Ani­mal Intelligence–and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process.