Parrots are one of the most fascinating animals on earth because of their ability to mimic sounds.
These intelligent birds make for interesting companions and are often a source of joy to any household that has them.
These five parrots at a British wildlife park are just like any other birds of their species – they talk a lot.
As fun as that would seem, the staff were equally shocked and amused when they learned that the birds had a particular skill – blurting out expletives!
It had only been days since they came to Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in August, but these parrots already decided that filtering their words won’t be necessary.
The foul-mouthed birds spared no one; they spoke obscenities to both the park’s visitors and staff!
Steve Nichols, the venue’s chief executive, spoke to CNN Travel about the hilarious situation.
“It just went ballistic, they were all swearing,” he said.
As it turns out, he too had been a “victim” of their name-calling.
“I get called a fat t**t every time I walk past,” he added.
Based on the management’s observation, the parrots are encouraged to spit out more profanities when they elicit a response from their audience.
“The more they swear, the more you usually laugh which then triggers them to swear again,” Nichols told The Independent. “But when you get four or five together that have learned the swearing and naturally learnt the laughing, so when one swears, one laughs and before you know it, it just got to be like an old working men’s club scenario where they are all just swearing and laughing.”
Luckily, none of the guests have complained about the birds. In fact, they found the whole thing highly amusing!
“The visitors were giving them as much back as what they were giving to them,” Nichols said.
However, the officials were concerned for the children who would be visiting the park during the weekends. They wanted to keep it a family-friendly place, so they removed the parrots from public view and transferred them to an “off-shore enclosure.”
They were also split up so they won’t be able to teach the other birds to swear. This will be a temporary arrangement until the animals learn to speak a more wholesome language. Their hope is that the birds will adapt natural calls from the other African grey parrots.
“I’m hoping they learn different words within colonies – but if they teach the others bad language and I end up with 250 swearing birds, I don’t know what we’ll do,” Nichols told BBC.
The African grey parrots—named Eric, Jade, Elsie, Tyson, and Billy—came from five different owners who decided to surrender them to the park within the same week. The birds shared a quarantine facility together before being put on public display.
Nichols said this isn’t the first time they’ve taken in a swearing parrot, but it’s something that happens only three or four times a year. However, this pandemic has led many owners to donate their parrots after spending more time with them and deciding they should be in a larger living space like a park.
“We would normally take in one or two parrots in a fortnight. Today we took in eight,” he said.
Despite the weird situation, the park executive said the bawdy birds “brought a big smile to a really hard year.” The pandemic has hit the park really hard, but Nichols said they’re staying positive and focusing on moving forward.
Although they’ve been saying “bad” words, these parrots certainly did good by bringing laughter to everyone in the facility!
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