CURWOOD: At the time of his death earlier this month at the age of 31, he was working with researchers at Harvard and Brandeis universities. As a fan who followed his career for more than two decades, Sy Montgomery offers this tribute to Alex the parrot.

MONTGOMERY: When he died, I felt like some folks did when Elvis Presley or Lady Diana passed away. Alex the African Grey Parrot was one of my heroes.

Ever since he left the pet store for the lab, Alex had worked with researcher Irene Pepperberg on a monumental project. For most of his life, he studied the English language—and in doing so, changed the way humans look at our place as a species in the great order of life.

First Washoe the chimp—later Koko the gorilla—learned American Sign Language. Then dolphins and sea lions learned to touch word-like symbols in syntactical order. There were others. But some linguist or other was always shooting them down. They complained the animals weren’t using language as we do.

Alex revealed a mind remarkably like ours. His last words, spoken to Pepperberg the night before he died, were these: “You be good. See you tomorrow. I love you.” Some still claim Alex wasn’t really using language. But I mean, come on! Here he is, telling us, in plain English, that he wants a nut! What could be clearer than that?

When Alex spoke, a member of a species more closely related to dinosaurs than to humans was talking with us. And that answered the question, for me anyway, beyond any doubt: Language is not the uncrossable barrier between people and animals. Which suggests this ‘great divide’ between our kind and other species is just something we made up.

In speaking his mind so clearly, Alex has done us a great service. He has helped to reunite humanity with the rest of the living world.