Thursday, February 23, 2012

Alex the Talking Parrot was a Mathematical Genius




There was once an extremely intelligent West African Gray Parrot called Alex. Alex was a famous parrot not only able to talk rather fluently but, it now appears, also able to count objects and perform numerical calculations, according to an article published in Animal Cognition, by Irene Pepperberg. 

Dr. Irene, who trained Alex, reports her charge had great mathematical skills and was able to add two Arabic numerals and the total number of objects under three cups.

She performed 12 trials asking Alex to add two Arabic numerals and amazingly he gave the right answer nine times. When she presented him, sequentially, with three sets of objects hidden under three cups, Alex gave the correct answer eight out of ten times.

Click here to read the full article.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Till Death Do Us Part: Birds that Mate for Life. Happy Valentine's Day!

Love is in the air. This Valentine’s Day, take inspiration from some of the great bird species that mate for life. Here are just a few examples of the many winged wonders that fall into this category.

Bald Eagle
Laysan Albatross
Mute Swan
Scarlet Macaw
Whooping Crane
California Condor
Atlantic Puffin
Black Vulture

Click here to read the details of this article.

Happy Valentine's Day!