© Christine Balderas/Justin Allfree
Irene Pepperberg, a Harvard University research associate who studies cognition and communication in African grey parrots, has moved her lab four times since 1984. "None of the moves has been easy," she says. During her first move, from Purdue University to Northwestern University, she had only one bird; Pepperberg loaded the animal and all her research material in a student's station wagon and drove the 120 miles overnight. By the time she moved from the University of Arizona to Boston 16 years later, she had to negotiate with airlines to buy seats for three birds (one of which had to travel with a student due to airline restrictions). "When you have these incredibly invaluable animals, you want to make sure they're OK," she says.
Any move provokes anxiety, but adding the task of relocating an entire lab to packing up a home and adjusting to new ...
