A British zoo was forced to remove parrots from display after the birds began swearing at visitors. Five African gray parrots at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park only arrived there on August 15, but after spending so much time together, they started spouting off foul language at anyone who would listen. Now, they’re being given a “time out” from the public eye to see if they can clean up their potty mouths.
- Zoo staff found it pretty funny. After all, animals swearing, especially parrots, when they have no idea what they’re really saying is hilarious, right? Not all customers thought so, so the park’s CEO Steve Nichols is giving the birds a little break from the spotlight.
- This isn’t all that uncommon. Nichols said that in his many years working with animals, this isn’t the first time he’s come across parrots that used “a bit of blue language.” As he told Lincolnshire Live, “For the last 25 years, we have always taken in parrots that have sometimes had a bit of blue language and we have really got used to that. Every now and then you’ll get one that swears and it’s always funny. We always find it very comical when they do swear at you.”
- Five birds swearing at once, however, is a little different. It’s one thing to have one swearing parrot, but five in one room? You don’t see that every day. “ust by coincidence, we took in five in the same week and because they were all quarantined together it meant that one room was just full of swearing birds,” Nichols recalled. “The more they swear the more you usually laugh which then triggers them to swear again.”
- The birds seem to feed off each other. Nicols revealed that not only do the parrots know how to swear, they also love laughing, setting off a vicious circle that is hilarious to witness. “When you get four or five together that have learned the swearing and naturally learned the laughing so when one swears, one laughs and before you know it just got to be like an old working men’s’ club scenario where they are all just swearing and laughing,” he said.
- For now, the birds are being kept away from the children. The adults don’t mind the language too much, but the kids need to be shielded so for now, the parrots won’t be on public display.
