A Tribute to Alex the African Grey

In what has truly rocked and shocked the parrot world, we lost our most magnificent ambassador on September 7th. The silver lining in this cloud is the INCREDIBLE amount of media coverage this beloved creature's passing has received. Irene Pepperburg is a dear friend of mine, and while talking to her last week her comment was "It's almost like Diana died. I have been blown away by the show of support and love that has come as a result of this tragedy. Donations to the Alex Foundation are up 1000%."

Avian Adventures has been a long time supporter of The Alex Foundation. We have donated many cages over the years and have made financial contributions as well. I was privileged to meet Alex several times and even shot a short video with him that resides on our website. (http://www.avianadventures.com/Alex/Alex%20the%20Parrot.htm) I can tell you, he was quite a character! The minute I would pick him up, Alex would say “Wanna go back! Wanna go back!” He just cracked me up.

He was such an incredible bird that the New York Times, LA Times, Boston Globe, CBS News, Good Morning American, and many, many more prestigious publications covered his death. Take a look at a few of the links we have found: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/science/10cnd-parrot.html?em&ex=1189569600&en=708c72b735b87acd&ei=5087%0A

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2167779,00.html (I especially loved this one)

http://www.livescience.com/history/070914_hn_parrot.html

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/stories/MYSA091607.02H.maria.24750f9.html

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-alex12sep12,1,7051719.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=2&cset=true

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/opinion/12wed4.html?_r=1&em&ex=1189742400&en=5c33aee830732d44&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin

GMA Video: http://abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=Alex&type=

Irene and Alex did more to promote interest in parrots than anyone I can think of. If you would like to read more about the contributions that Alex made to the studies of animal intelligence (or to give a donation in his name), visit: www.alexfoundation.org

In memory of Alex