Alex the counting parrot was even smarter than we thought [View all]

[n2doc]

Alex the gray parrot was no ordinary bird. The subject of a thirty-year investigation into avian cognition, by the time he died in 2007, numerous scientific publications had pointed to Alex as proof that a bird's mathematical abilities could be on par with — and even exceed — those of chimps and other non-human primates.

Now, the results of the Alex's last experiment have been published — and the findings are more compelling than ever.

Alex's mathematical prowess has been well documented. The parrot could quantify sets of up to eight items; identify and correctly order Arabic numerals from 1—8; and even sum two sets of objects presented one after the other, so long as their sum total was less than or equal to six.

But an article published in the latest issue of Animal Cognition by animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg — who studied and cared for Alex for over three decades — suggests that Alex was capable of even more impressive mathematical feats.

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http://io9.com/5887158/alex-the-counting-parrot-was-even-smarter-than-we-thought