Reviewed by Kathy London

This book by Irene M. Pepperberg is recommended to anyone who thinks science is dull. As Stephen Jay Gould wrote “science must be understood as a social phenomenon, a gutsy human enterprise, not the work of robots.” Irene Pepperberg’s book is subtitled “How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence – and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process.”

It describes a passionate researcher producing ground-breaking science against considerable odds.

While she has published many scientific papers, this short book is personal, an autobiography centered on her work with the Grey Parrot Alex. Pepperberg writes in an easily-read style.

I have one quibble: the first chapter of the book deals with the aftermath of Alex’s death. This may not make sense until you’ve read the rest of the book. I suggest you start at Chapter 2.

When Pepperberg started her work, “received scientific wisdom… insisted that animals were little more than robotic automatons, mindlessly responding to stimuli in their environment.” In work spanning decades, Pepperberg demonstrated that “a bird with a brain the size of a shelled walnut could do the kinds of things young children do….It changed the way we think about animal thinking.”

The first chapter of the book relates her lonely childhood, education, and how she came to choose her life’s work. Once the story moves on the Alex, Pepperberg’s personal life becomes a backdrop to her research. She earns a PhD in chemistry, but discovers her interest lies in animal-human communication. Unable to obtain a job or funding, she works with volunteer-students in the corners of labs belonging to her college-professor-husband’s colleagues. She trades home-baked cookies for research supplies. Eventually her work earns enough respect to provide grants and teaching jobs, but funding problems are a theme throughout the book.

Most of the book describes her experiences with the parrots, especially her first bird Alex. (Alex was eventually joined by other Grey Parrots.) Alex, named for “Animal Language Experiment”, was her most accomplished subject. He demonstrated cognitive processes that only humans and apes had been considered capable of achieving. Pepperberg presents a fascinating story of how she proved that Alex understood what he was saying, the unexpected discoveries she made along the way, and the delightful personalities of the parrots.

It was no more possible to stay emotionally remote from the birds than it would be with a child. Pepperberg even removed herself from the training and testing of one bird she was especially bonded with to avoid biasing the results. Readers will easily relate to her empathy with the birds when they suffered illnesses and injuries, and her devastation at Alex’s unexpected death.

“Alex taught us how little we know about animal minds and how much more there is to discover” Pepperberg summarizes. The subject bears exploring because it tells us a lot about ourselves, too.

A footnote from the “web master” is that animals understand some humans in the book “Angry Pigs Organized Against Gerbils: The Farmer Island War” I wrote with the help of our four grandchildren. The sequel being developed on the “Continuing Adventures” link of the Farmer Island web site is expanding on that theme. For those who might have an interest, humans have returned to the farm and discovered that at least one of the pigs can understand what the woman is saying.