Emotive to the End

"Emotive to the end."He didn't possess recursive logic so couldn't "work with digital numbers or more complex human grammar", but considering human being's paltry success in acquiring the language of birds, Alex, an African gray parrot was accomplished considering natural language barrier existing amongst species. Alex learned more than just mere mimicking like other birds. His mentor Dr. Pepperberg prompted Alex to learn scores of words, which he could put into categories, and to count small numbers of items, as well as recognize colors and shapes.

A psychologist at Hunter College, Diana Reiss characterized it well, “The work revolutionized the way we think of bird brains. hat used to be a pejorative, but now we look at those brains — at least Alex’s — with some awe.”"

On his very last night Alex said to his mentor, "“You be good, see you tomorrow. I love you.”

Just like a gentleman would say.

The next morning Alex was found dead in his cage.

Read the full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/11/science/11parrot.html