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A parrot called Griffin has humiliated students at Harvard University, as well as local children, by beating them in a memory test. Harvard researchers compared human memory skills with those of the African grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) – an animal separated from humans by more than 300 million years of evolution. They compared how 21 Harvard undergraduates and 21 six-to-eight-year-old children performed against the 22-year-old bird Griffin in several rounds of a classic shell game. The game required mentally tracking the locations of fluffy pom-poms hidden under cups that swapped places a number of times. Griffin's accuracy was comparable to,...

Andrew Jackson isn’t the only US President to keep a pet bird in the White House. Teddy Roosevelt had a one-legged rooster and James Buchanan supposedly owned two bald eagles (because America). But to our knowledge, Jackson was the only one to have a swearing parrot. The bird’s name was Poll and was originally meant for Jackson’s wife, Rachel. But after she passed away, Jackson became the African Grey’s caretaker. So how did the parrot get a foul mouth? We can’t say for sure. But with what we know about Jackson—a man so tough and temperamental his nickname was “Old...

We are deeply saddened to announce Alex died Friday morning, September 7, 2007, of unknown causes. We will have a formal press release on Monday when we know the cause of death. He was absolutely fine yesterday and he was found dead this morning. Dr. Pepperberg will take the weekend to mourn his death. We hope to have more information on Monday We miss him so much. Thank you, Arlene Levin-Rowe - Pepperberg Lab Manager and the Pepperberg Lab Staff    

Researchers explore whether parrot has concept of zeroA bird seems to have hit on a concept that eluded mathematicians for centuries - possibly during a temper tantrum.June 22, 2005 Special to World Science Researchers are exploring whether a parrot has developed a numerical concept that eluded mathematicians for centuries: zero.Oddly, it seems he may have achieved the feat during a temper tantrum, the researchers say. Although zero is an obvious notion to most of us, it wasn't to people long ago. Scholars say it came into widespread use in the West only in the 1600s by way of India, which...

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