Alex & Me

Any animal lover who is searching for a good read might consider the recently published Alex & Me by Irene Pepperberg. It is the story of Pepperberg's remarkable journey with Alex, a parrot she bought in a Chicago pet store in 1977 and then taught to communicate.

As his obituary in The London Times noted: "Alex, the African gray parrot who was smarter than the average U. S. president, has died at the relatively tender age of 31. He could count to six, identify colors, understand concepts such as bigger and smaller and had a vocabulary of 150 words. To his supporters he was proof that the phrase 'birdbrain' should be expunged from the dictionary."

Pepperberg's relationship with Alex was scientific as well as emotional. The book documents her experiments in animal communication as well as her ongoing struggle to win recognition from the larger scientific community. Through years of hard work and meticulous trials, Pepperberg set out to demonstrate, like Jane Goodall, that animals are smarter than we think and that they do have the ability to "communicate."

"Alex taught me to believe that his little bird brain was conscious in some matter, that is, capable of intention," Pepperberg writes. "By extrapolation, Alex taught me that we live in a world populated by thinking, conscious creatures."

As much a story about animal cognition as it is about the changing nature of how we view animals in general, Alex & Me is high on my must read list. Do post a review if you've beaten me to it.