San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
ZOO SEPARATES FOUL-MOUTHED GRAY PARROTS
When Steve Nichols, the chief executive of the Lincolnshire Wildlife Park, heard employees loudly swearing in the next room, he went over to tell them off.
But there were no employees in the next room. Just the birds.
He then realized that five parrots who moved to the park in the same week shared an unfortunate trait: They all had filthy, filthy mouths.
With more colorful language than plumage, the African grey parrots — Billy, Elsie, Eric, Jade and Tyson — used different curse words in different British accents, but they were all unprintably coarse. At one point, a group of women walking past the aviary thought the lewd comments shouted at them were from a hidden staff member, Nichols said.
The park had no complaints — in fact, visitors reveled in swearing back at the birds — but park officials feared children and parents might not enjoy the experience as much, he said. The birds were moved into a temporary space away from the public, giving them time to be around more family-friendly birds and hopefully clean up their vocabulary.
A major problem of the parrots’ language, he said, was that it was hilarious.
“When a parrot swears, it’s very difficult for other humans not to laugh,” he said. “And when we laugh, that’s a positive response. And therefore, what they do is they learn both the laugh and the swear word.”
“It’s not so bad with one on its own,” he continued. “But then, if you get five together, once one swears and another one laughs, and another one laughs, before you know it, it sounds like a group of teenagers or an old working men’s club.”