U.S: In Memory of Alex

A Reflection

By Sharon St. Joan, Best Friends Network

We are sad to learn that Alex has passed away.

At the age of 31, the world-renowned parrot, famous for his intellectual abilities, died on September 6, after having spent thirty years working with Dr. Irene Pepperberg at a number of universities, most recently Brandeis University in Massachusetts.

Alex lived at the University, with two other parrots, spending eight to ten hours a day interacting with one or more humans, usually including Dr. Pepperberg, who clearly felt greatly attached to Alex. Alex astonished people with his abilities to identify verbally complex attributes of objects; such as "smaller green key". When he was tired of the research, he would say "I wanna go away." Alex had a vocabulary of 150 words that he combined appropriately to express thoughts. He was an African Grey, one of the species of parrots believed to be the most intelligent.

Yet, when we miss Alex, we do not miss him because he could identify objects, shapes and colors as well as a five-year-old child. Alex, as a bird, was an animal, and animals have a quality of innocence that is endearing. We miss Alex because of his innocence, his charm, his grace, and his gift of being able to make contact. After all, we know many people who are intelligent, and they are not always endearing.

For whatever reason, not every human being is sensitive to the amazing quality of innocence that animals have. But for those people who do love animals, this feeling generally extends to all kinds of animals: from cows to eagles, from fish to dogs and cats, from whales to turtles. There is a great wish to do them no harm, but to help them and protect them, to provide whatever they need, to defend their habitats and their homes, and to do our best to keep them safe from our fellow humans, who do not always feel the same way about them.

Whether animals are majestic like whales and eagles, or comical as are parrots and often dogs, whether they greet us, as our own animals do, with love and affection, or whether they stand aloof from us--like a pride of lions or a family of great horned owls--we respond to a quality of innocence in all animals, a quality perhaps of being in touch with the soul and the spirit, of being free from the corruption and pettiness which tend to mar the human condition.

So we will miss Alex, not because he was brainy, but because he was innocent, guileless, and pure in spirit. May he spend his days flying in the rainforests of heaven, accompanied by his friends, both birds and people.

Photo: stock photo