Parrots are fascinating because of their ability to speak and mimic voices. However, this can get them in trouble if they learn the wrong words! Five African grey parrots that were adopted by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Park were removed from public view and separated after they started swearing at customers. Luckily, everyone saw the humor in the situation and nobody was offended.
The zoo adopted the parrots (Billy, Elsie, Eric, Jade, and Tyson) in mid-August. However, the newcomers began encouraging each other to swear and something had to be done before things got out of hand (or is that wing?).
Steve Nichols, the CEO of Lincolnshire Wildlife Park, told Bored Panda that the parrots are doing very well after being separated and fit in very quickly as highly social creatures. Read on for the rest of Nichols' insights about the birds.
Five parrots began swearing at customers, so they were separated and removed from public view. Luckily, nobody felt offended
Image credits: Lincolnshire Wildlife Park
Image credits: Lincolnshire Wildlife Park
Image credits: Lincolnshire Wildlife Park
Image credits: Lincolnshire Wildlife Park
Image credits: Lincolnshire Wildlife Park
Image credits: Lincolnshire Wildlife Park
Nichols confirmed to Bored Panda that the swearwords the parrots used were "very strong" and might even make some sailors blush. He added that he's yet to meet someone who doesn't regret teaching their parrots to swear.
According to Nichols, it isn't difficult to get parrots to forget certain words or phrases: "They will eventually be integrated into a flock of over 200 African greys and hopefully they will have way too much on their minds."
The staff had hoped that being outside would help the parrots learn to mind their words. Alas! They kept at it. Whenever they got a response from someone, this just encouraged them to keep swearing.
“We saw it very quickly—we are quite used to parrots swearing but we’ve never had five at the same time. Most parrots clam up outside, but for some reason, these five relish it,” the Nichols told PA.
Now, the parrots are placed in different areas of the zoo so they don’t encourage each other to curse like sailors. While nobody complained about the mouthy birds, they were separated to protect young visitors and in the hopes that the parrots would pick up the natural calls of other African greys.
“People have come to us but they think it’s highly amusing, we haven’t had one complaint. When a parrot tells you to [eff] off, it amuses people very highly. It’s brought a big smile to a really hard year,” Nichols said.
The five African greys aren’t the only birds of renown at the Lincolnshire Wildlife Park. The zoo is also home to Chico, a parrot who made headlines earlier in September after learning to sing pop songs, including Beyoncé’s 2008 single, ‘If I Were A Boy.’
The Lincolnshire Wildlife Park is set in over 650k square feet of Nature Reserve and is the United Kingdom’s premier Animal Rehabilitation Center. It has over 2k residents and is home to The National Parrot Sanctuary which is the largest of its kind in the world. The park has rescued more parrots than anyone in the United Kingdom.
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