Alex the African Grey

I decided that I needed to go back and redraw Alex the African Grey again, seeing as the documentary about him is due out this September (for the record, I can't wait).

For those of you unfamiliar with Alex, he was an amazing parrot whose name stood for Avian Learning EXperiment (Originally Avian Language Experiment but changed to avoid controversy). Along with primary researcher and founder of the project Irene Pepperberg, Alex forever changed the way people viewed parrot intelligence, proving that it's not always just mimicking, and that these birds are, in fact, capable of intelligence on par with a four to six year old child. Alex was able to count, identify shapes, colors, food, and sizes accurately, and was learning to read letters and understand phonetics as well as addition when he unfortunately passed away unexpectedly at the young age of 31, presumably due to heart conditions that couldn't have been predicted. His final words : You be good. See you tomorrow. I love you.

Here are some links for those who would like to learn more about this amazing bird, and his successors, Griffin and Arthur (aka Wart) :
[link] [link] [link] [link]

And for the record... YES I am a very avid follower of Pepperberg's work, obviously xD

I do commissions! Check out my journal to help me raise money to major in Avian Science : [link]