Maybe I'm just more attuned to them right now but parrots keep popping up around me. Monk parrots (also called Quaker parrots) are in the trees around Austin and recently the City of McAllen, TX passed an ordinance protecting introduced parrots from being harmed or captured.
Regardless of why I'm reading more about them, African Grey parrots have certainly been finding their way into children's books this past year. Like Alex the Parrot: No Ordinary Bird, The Desperate Adventures of Zeno & Alya features one of these highly intelligent, very social, birds. Zeno knows he is a “Booful, briyant bird,” because his late “servant,” Dr. Agard, often told him so. For many years, Dr. Agard lived and worked with Zeno. Zeno understood and could speak more than 127 words. But one morning Dr. Agard doesn't get up and Zeno is left alone. His advanced vocabulary and intelligence didn't do anything to prepare Zeno for a life on his own. Flying around Brooklyn, Zeno lands on Alya's window. Battling leukemia Alya is just as desperate and nervous as Zeno. She feels totally caged in by her illness, unable to do much of anything for herself, and counting the number of times (9,595 at last count) that her mother strokes her head. Zeno is so confused and uncertain about his new-found freedom that he is plucking out his own feathers. (Reading about Zeno's trials and tribulations I kept hearing the Janis Joplin/Kris Kristofferson lyrics from Me and Bobby Mcgee--"Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose." At one point Zeno literally has nothing left to lose as he is a bald parrot.) In a story that is sad, funny, and joyful, Zeno and Alya find each other, lose each other, and finally find each other again. It is a story of friendship and hope, for both species. Oh, and banana muffins play a major role in the story. What could be better?
Monk parrot (licensed under Creative Commons)
Author Jane Kelley acknowledges Dr. Irene Pepperberg's work with Alex as the inspiration for this story. As with the many of the best stories, there is some basis for it from the real world. There really are a lot of wild parrots in Brooklyn. The most reasonable story for the origin of this wild
flock is a crate accidentally opened at JFK Airport resulting in a "great escape." Zeno mentions the Great Escape, having heard about it from Monk parrots he meets on his adventures. African Grey parrots have also been re-introduced to the wild by organizations like The World Parrot Trust and people like Jane Goodall. Like Zeno, these birds don't immediately rush to freedom when the cage doors open. About 80% of illegally captured birds die while they are being trafficked and the mortality rate for legally traded birds is 40-50% between capture and export. In the wild Grey parrots may live to be 25, while properly cared for captive birds can live twice as long. Final thought....oh my gosh. While writing this post I learned about a Parrot Lovers cruise out of Galveston. Wow! Who wants to go with me?
As birds go, parrots seem to have a very special connection with humans. We are charmed by their colors, intelligence, and voices. The broad order that includes parrots contains over 350 birds but I suspect most of us think about parrots as pets more than wild birds because they have shared our lives and been popular companion animals for centuries. Some imitate human speech and a few, like the African Gray Parrot (see the October 22, 2013 post about Alex), are so good at mimicry that they seem almost human. In the wild some birds live up to 80 years! But some wild parrots are endangered and although it is illegal to sell wild-caught parrots, the popularity of the birds continues to drive illegal trade that further decimates some populations. For example, there are fewer than 500 Blue-throated macaws, while there are less than 50 mature orange-bellied parrots in Australia. Fortunately some efforts to save parrots, like the kakapo, the world’s heaviest parrot and one that is also flightless, are working. Parrots Over Puerto Rico by Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore tells the story of the fight to save another breed of parrot. Their story is about the birds that have lived on the island of Puerto Rico for millions of years, but it is also a history of Puerto Rico and the impact that population growth has had on the birds. Also called Iquaca, the Puerto Rican parrot is the only bird unique to Puerto Rico. (Iquaca is the onomatopoeic name that mimics their flight call.)
Before the island was settled, it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of Puerto Rican parrots lived in the area. As soon as people arrived on the island, beginning with the Tainos around 800 CE, the parrots were hunted for food, to keep as pets, or to use the feathers for decoration. As sailors landed ships at the island, black rats began to take over the nesting holes and ate the parrot eggs. Since each pair of parrots usually mates for life and produced only one nest of chicks a year this took a serious toll on the parrots. By 1937 there were only about 2,000 parrots in the mountains of Puerto Rico and in 1954 only 200 parrots were left. By 1967 only twenty-four parrots remained. Unless something happened quickly the Puerto Rican parrot would be extinct.
Puerto Rican Parrot ( USFWS Photo; licensed by Creative Commons)
This is becoming an all-too familiar story. Hunting, environment and other factors decimating a population. Sometimes scientists and concerned individuals are able to step in and help before it's too late. Fortunately this is one of those stories with hope for a happy ending. Concerned scientists started to raise chicks raised in captivity using Hispaniolan parrots, their less rare cousins, to nurture the babies. By 1979 the first aviary-raised chick was released back into the wild. By 1999, one of the two aviaries had 54 parrots. Ten captive-bred parrots were released in 2000. People taught the birds to hide from hawks and avoid becoming prey. Dozens more birds were raised and released. Perhaps these birds will not disappear after all. An Afterword details more about the Parrot Recovery Program with photographs of the birds and the aviary staff and a look at how the history of Puerto Rico is intertwined with the history of the birds.
Hispanolian Parrots (Licensed by Creative Commons)
The picture book is arranged vertically, rather than horizontally, allowing a spectacular view that runs from the ground level, high up into the tree tops. The story is beautifully illustrated in collage by Susan L. Roth. I had the opportunity in April 2013 to watch Susan work her magic. By only ripping or cutting pieces of paper, including take-away menus, into shapes, Susan forms pictures that are then positioned and held with tape and glue. She takes pride in the fact that no other media are used--no pens, pencils, paints. The book offers a great story for bird-loving young readers and will inspire them learn more about endangered birds and maybe try their hand at collage art.
A copy of the book was provided by the publisher, Lee and Low Books.
Alex the Parrot by Stephanie Spinner has been sitting on my book cart (yes, I have a personal library style book cart) for a year (almost exactly--it was released on October 9, 2012). I couldn't give it up by donating it to my local library but I hadn't found time to read it. Glad I held on to this book! It's a great example of an illustrated book for readers who are older than the "typical" picturebook set as well as a nonfiction picturebook. It's also definitely NOT a cute bedtime storybook about a parrot. Too much detail and information and a lot of fodder for discussion that would keep the kids awake. So. Who was Alex?
"One June day in 1977, Irene Pepperberg walked into a pet store looking for an African grey parrot." Of the several available, she singled out one bird to be part of an experiment--the Avian Learning Experiment--at Purdue University. Through her work with Alex, scientists learned that, far from being barely intelligent creatures, some animals, including parrots, are highly intelligent and capable of understanding the words they hear--and in the case of parrots and mynah birds--those they say.
Interestingly the genesis of Irene Pepperberg's interest in animal intelligence started in 1974 when she saw a
television show about a new science--the study of animal language. In 1974, while an anthropology student at the University of New Mexico, I learned about the current research teaching chimps to communicate using ASL. Years later, I met one of the subjects of that research, Nim Chimpsky, at Cleveland Amory's Black Beauty Ranch in East Texas. Believe me, that chimp knew how to tell you what he wanted you to know! Studying chimps and gorillas, like Koko, or dolphins was where the grant funds went because those creatures have brains more like human brains. No one other than Irene was especially interested in "bird brains."
Alex was in many ways an ordinary parrot. He imitated noises he heard but spoke as clearly as a person, something not possible for a chimp or a dog or a dolphin. Budding scientists will appreciate following the processes and methods Irene used to teach Alex and her attempts to discover whether he really understood what he was saying. Like a petulant toddler "no" became one of his favorite words. Importantly, the book also explains why the research had to be meticulously document so that it would not be dismissed as operant conditioning like "Clever Hans," a horse who performed math problems by picking up cues from his handler. Eventually Alex could understand and say hundreds of words, many more than Washoe, a chimp who could sign 130 words, or Koko, who could sign 200 words. Alex even understood concepts like bigger or smaller and the concept of zero--something children don't grasp until they are about four or five years old. Alex even became an avian celebrity, appearing on television shows.
Alex at work (photo from Brandeis University
In the lab Alex "ruled the roost" and started teaching a younger bird words and even would tease his young pupils. Regrettably Alex did not live the normal life span of an African grey parrot. In his short life he taught the world that being a bird brain is a good thing and his groundbreaking work, and Irene's, continues with Griffin, one of Alex's students. African Grey Parrots are known as the "Einsteins" of the parrot world. In the wild they live in the rain forests of West and Central Africa and importation of wild-caught parrots into the US has been prohibited since 1992.
The illustrations by Meilo So, who also illustrated Pale Male: Citizen Hawk of New York City, shows Alex in exquisite watercolor detail with sketchier 1970s style scenes around him. So used colored pencils and ink to provide additional illustrations. The hand-letter type uses the same shaped letters Alex used in his testing and cartoon-like bubbles show his dialogue.
Adults or teen readers who want to know more can read Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence--and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process, Pepperberg's book about her life with Alex. Readers from about third grade through middle school will learn a lot about African Grey Parrots and animal intelligence and this is a great companion book for a longer fiction book like The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, about a gorilla that communicated with people.
I received a review copy of this book from the publisher, Alfred A. Knopf.
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