Alex could speak at the age of 31.
He could also add, subtract, read, spell, and even understand the concept of zero. All this might have been rather unremarkable for a 31-year old man, except that Alex was not a man. He was a parrot. Alex, an African Gray parrot whose name stands for "Avian Learning EXperiment", began and spent the first year of his life in a Chicago pet shop, before he was purchased by Irene Pepperberg, the psychology professor who would become his owner and trainer. Alex the parrot would go on to gain subsequent fame on TV shows and numerous articles until his death in 2007, but recent research has shown even more birds doing math. Birds, it seems, have brains hardwired to count. The American coot, a black marsh bird, counts the eggs it lays in its nest. If other coots lay eggs in her nest, a common practice among these birds, the coot will notice. Although it cannot tell which egg is the impostor, the coot will lay more of its own eggs to compensate.
He could also add, subtract, read, spell, and even understand the concept of zero. All this might have been rather unremarkable for a 31-year old man, except that Alex was not a man. He was a parrot. Alex, an African Gray parrot whose name stands for "Avian Learning EXperiment", began and spent the first year of his life in a Chicago pet shop, before he was purchased by Irene Pepperberg, the psychology professor who would become his owner and trainer. Alex the parrot would go on to gain subsequent fame on TV shows and numerous articles until his death in 2007, but recent research has shown even more birds doing math. Birds, it seems, have brains hardwired to count. The American coot, a black marsh bird, counts the eggs it lays in its nest. If other coots lay eggs in her nest, a common practice among these birds, the coot will notice. Although it cannot tell which egg is the impostor, the coot will lay more of its own eggs to compensate.
And parrots and coots aren't even the most astonishing. Even the humble pigeon can count as high as 50. Researchers have trained pigeons to watch lights flash a certain number of times, and then peck a button the same number of times to receive food. The pigeons succeed with an almost eerie accuracy! Scientists are rethinking their theories on the complexity of a birds brain, as crows and starlings join the mathematicians of the bird world.
Polly still can't do algebra, though.
Cool I saw that in National Geographic. Used it for science in the news
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