Alex The Parrot: The Smartest Parrot Ever? (VIDEO)

Here at HuffPost Green, we've seen some pretty amazing videos of brilliant animals, like crows that can use tools and a llama that can pick out colors. However, this video of Alex The Parrot definitely takes the cake. Alex The Parrot gained international recognition for his use of language and emotional capabilities: his trainer reported that he had the intelligence level of a 5 year-old human. Alex died suddenly and unexpectedly almost two years ago, on September 6th 2007. Since we are approaching the 2 year anniversary of his death, we thought we'd honor Alex's tremendous achievements by posting this amazing video of him. In this video, he can understand questions that it hasn't been trained to answer, including being able to count and tell the difference between colors, shapes and sizes.

You have to watch this.

Get HuffPost Green On Facebook and Twitter!

Comments

[igorz]

Uh, Dude, it's a freakin' bird. And, no, it doesn't count, it doesn't distinguish colors, and it can't tell you the square root of 89. IT"S A FREAKIN' BIRD for gawdsakes. Anyone who thinks otherwise, please contact me for a great price on a bridge that I own.

Whew.

[MyDogJack]

Well , this freakin bird, as you so eloquently refer to him, could. And I think there is ample emperical data from Pepperbergs 30 year study to back that up, Igorz.

[HSans]

My mother had an African Grey parrot, Chaka, who would whistle 'Bridge on the River Kwaï', imitate my dad's farting, call the dog like my dad, cluck like the chickens in the yard, squeal like the front gate and copy the doorbell ringing. He kept my parents on their toes. That was a very smart and sociable parrot. He loved company and could copy someone's voice within a day of seeing them for the first time. I miss Chaka.

[Progressiveama]

and yet we catch them and put them in cages......they were designed to fly and enjoy great freedom....humans come along and Watch Out!

[kareemachan]

Well, some of us evil humans with birds let them out of their cage much of the time and don't clip their feathers so they can fly around. And you couldn't get our conure to fly outside - he saw a hawk fly overhead once and is convinced that the world is full of parrot hawks.

PS - Cuba Libre is a rescue conure. If we hadn't taken him in and worked with him, he'd still be one sad, neurotic bird.

[BLBass]

I'm pretty sure I first learned about Alex from Reading Rainbow more than 20 years ago. I remembered that he had died, so I thought this might be about a new parrot. Oh well.

[Nathan Ferguson]

I saw this 4 years ago in psychology class...

[ChaiKat]

Why is it so hard for humans to believe animals are intelligent? If anything, they may be smarter than us, since they don't have our prejudices and intolerance.

[truthartbeauty]

animals have more integrity than humans that's for sure. even the smallest insect has more innate integrity than any man.

[ChaiKat]

agreed.

[Progressiveama]

YOU ARE SOOOOOOOOO­OOOOOOOOOO­OOOO RIGHT..........SO VERY VERY RIGHT

[wadda]

He's not dead. He's sleeping.

[deepfreezevideo]

My good man, upon further examination I found that he is GLUED TO HIS PERCH!

[deepfreezevideo]

I'll do the Monty Python deal with you if you want....great comedy.

[CellarDoor]

Brilliant! Thanks for the big Python inspired smile you put on my face!

[fmarquez]

proof of evolution, take that w

[ArborialBiped]

Sure, but could he answer questions posed by Katie Couric?

That test tripped up another well-known bird-brain.

[coachc]

LMAO!

[JDFlyer]

Too funny!!!

[fumes]

my money is on the parrot

[Progressiveama]

hahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[Bub]

If Einstein had watched as much Fox news as my parents, he'd be asking this Parrot for directions.

[tfred]

Maybe the Repuglicans could recruit Alex to run for President nest time. I know I'd vote for him in a New York minute.

[Bub]

Actually he was on the team that was supposed to 'school up' Palin in preparation for the campaign and the debates, but she ended up firing him for being to grueling of an instructor.

What killed the Parrot was the way Pallin responded to Katy Couric's questions.

[wbwbruce]

I have an African Gray and believe me she is a lot smarter then many on this board.

[LolaCola]

I first became aware of Alex from an article by Margaret Talbot in the New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_talbot

after much googling and youtubing, I came away with a completely different perception of intelligence, and non-human intelligence in particular. Everything I saw led me to believe that Alex was well loved and cared for.

[sixyfivepercentwater]

It was a good sideshow, but I'd like a more scientific demonstration. I wonder if the bird was able to answer simple questions when a mechanical voice asked them, and there was no possibility he was getting visual cues. In order to really do it right, the questioner would have to not know the correct answer to the question - but I have no idea how that would be accomplished.

[Musiker]

That's the thing, man...it WAS accomplished. Find and read "The Alex Papers" by Dr. Irene Pepperberg (who was unfortunately ignored in this small article). Once you've finished, you'll likely lose your incredulity regarding animal intelligence, in particular, parrots.

[sixyfivepercentwater]

I don't have any "incredulity" regarding animal intelligence. In fact, I think humans are far too patronizing towards animals in general. I'm totally prepared to believe he was that smart, but I'd also like to see more scientific method than was demonstrated in that video. That's all I'm saying.

I tend to suspect animals know as much as we do, but it doesn't matter to them. Can you tell I'm a cat owner?

[Michael Marinsky]

Alex is certainly smater than Bush.

[RJII]

lol. right.
if we could only go back in time, i'd voted for the parrot