Parrot worked to death?

External Since: Mar 16, 2005 Posts: 3

In article ,
"M.J." wrote:

> I'll repeat once more!
>
> Is this what you did to the poor creature, Ms Irene Pepperberg?
>
> Have him worked to death by your research?
> 8-12 hours a day, every day, of gruelling mental exercise, just to
> find out where the limits of avian intelligence exist! No wonder
> Alex died so young.

What you are describing is a death due to prolonged mental stress. fine.

Typically, when an animal, human or otherwise, is under chronic mental
stress, we observe manifestations selected from several dimensions of
measurable behavior and condition. A trivial and incomplete list might
include significant weight change, diet selection change, blood chemistry
changes, sleep disorders, hair (or feather) pulling, self mutilation,
violence, copraphagy etc.

Given that Alex was, in fact, one of -- quite possibly _the_ -- most studied
parrot in all of history, one might reasonably expect to have seen evidence
of some sort of stress disorders.

Where is your evidence of such stress? I've seen the same films as everyone
else of Alex (some presented by Dr. Pepperberg herself, in fact) and i've
never seen as much as the hint of a scintilla of evidence of any
stress-related pathology, mental or physical, in the bird.

So what is your secret evidence?

Grueling mental exercise, my aunt fannie.

..max
more like the best care and play time a parrot could ever hope for.

External Since: Sep 14, 2007 Posts: 21

"max" wrote in message

> In article ,
> "M.J." wrote:
>
>> I'll repeat once more!
>>
>> Is this what you did to the poor creature, Ms Irene Pepperberg?
>>
>> Have him worked to death by your research?
>> 8-12 hours a day, every day, of gruelling mental exercise, just to
>> find out where the limits of avian intelligence exist! No wonder
>> Alex died so young.
>
> What you are describing is a death due to prolonged mental stress. fine.
>
> Typically, when an animal, human or otherwise, is under chronic mental
> stress,

No, it is not fine, as the type of stress Alex was subjected to
is not comparable to anything else that an animal may encounter
in nature.

Usually stress means fear, hunger, uncertainty, noise, many other
environmental factors. A 30 year rigorous regiment of learning
to think abstractly, admionistered from the earliest age, is a stress
factor different than anything a parrot can encounter and there is
no way to judge how the creature will react to it (that is long term
effect).

In this case a long term consequense is apparently untimely death,
or that is the suspicion.

I am certain that if it were a wild-caught bird that were subjected
to Dr.Pepperbergs regiment of 8 to 12 hour per day mental
exercise, not a human imprinted bird, you would have observed
some more evident signs of distress. I suspect a wild caught bird
would defend itself from the "abuse" or would have sucumbed/expired
much earlier.

M.J.
we observe manifestations selected from several dimensions of
> measurable behavior and condition. A trivial and incomplete list might
> include significant weight change, diet selection change, blood chemistry
> changes, sleep disorders, hair (or feather) pulling, self mutilation,
> violence, copraphagy etc.
>
> Given that Alex was, in fact, one of -- quite possibly _the_ -- most
> studied
> parrot in all of history, one might reasonably expect to have seen
> evidence
> of some sort of stress disorders.
>
> Where is your evidence of such stress? I've seen the same films as
> everyone
> else of Alex (some presented by Dr. Pepperberg herself, in fact) and i've
> never seen as much as the hint of a scintilla of evidence of any
> stress-related pathology, mental or physical, in the bird.
>
> So what is your secret evidence?
>
>
> Grueling mental exercise, my aunt fannie.
>
> .max
> more like the best care and play time a parrot could ever hope for.