Irene Pepperberg

Hello. Hello.

I'm Dr. Irene Pepperberg, adjunct associate professor at Brandeis University.

Not exactly, but it doesn't surprise me.

Preening instead of working or butting in with the other birds when he should be quiet so we can train them. We'd say to him, calm down, just calm down. And one time I come storming into the laboratory because I've just come from a horrible faculty meeting when I was in Tucson. And Alex takes one look at me and he says, calm down. Really?

Yeah, and I actually stormed off and I said something to the effect of, don't you tell me to calm down, and I went into my office and slammed the door.

She may not know what each of those little phrases mean.

So she has learned from association that that will bring her flockmate back to normal.

And in Sadie's case... She's in a flock of two at this point. So if she wants to feel comfortable while preening or eating, she needs to know that he's going to be watching out for her. Remember, she doesn't have a big flock. She just has him.

Hello.