Potty-mouthed parrots teaching other birds to swear as zoo hatches plan to stop problem

Lifestyle

By Joshua Lynch

These birds need to wash their mouths out with soap.

A wildlife park in the UK conspired a new plan to stop their potty-mouthed parrots from cursing, telling zoo visitors to “f—k off.”

Lincolnshire Wildlife Park revealed they are taking eight cuss-happy African Grey parrots — including five who went viral in 2020 — and grouping them with 92 “non-swearing” birds to improve their language.

“I’m hoping, above the general noise of the flock, the swearing will be drowned out,” the park’s chief executive Steve Nichols told CNN.

“When we came to move them, the language that came out of their carrying boxes was phenomenal, really bad. Not normal swear words, these were proper expletives.”

However, if all goes wrong, Lincolnshire Wildlife Park could have 100 cussing parrots, Nichols added.

The method to the madness will be aimed at diluting the African Grey’s swearing so they’re able to learn “all the nice noises like microwaves and vehicles reversing” that the non-swearing birds typically mimic.

The African Grey parrots are one of the most highly intelligent birds on the planet — in which the birds are known for their distinctive cognitive abilities and impressive skill to mimic speech.

According to a 2019 Harvard study, the African Grey parrot can perform cognitive tasks at levels that rival a 5-year-old human.

“Six of them have got men’s voices, two of them have got ladies’ voices and when they’re all swearing it does sound really bad,” Nichols said.

The five infamous African Grey’s — named Billy, Elsie, Eric, Jade and Tyson — gained popularity in 2020 when five were separated for swearing at zoo visitors.

After the five birds were quarantined together due to the nationwide coronavirus outbreak, the witty birds somehow taught each other a wide range of curse words and expletive phrases.

“People have come to us but they think it’s highly amusing, we haven’t had one complaint,” Nichols told The Guardian in 2020. “When a parrot tells you to f—k off, it amuses people very highly. It’s brought a big smile to a really hard year.”

But now, those five birds have yet to ditch their foul language — as they now join their three new cussing African Grey friends in the latest experiment to stop the cursing completely.

The remaining birds are named Eric, Captain, and Sheila.

Nichols believes the risky plan is so far, so good — but the chief executive admits they still curse, and even laugh after doing so.

Lincolnshire has put up signs around the wildlife center alerting visitors about the parrots’ devious behavior, instructing them not to encourage their foul language.

The warning sign reads to guests: “For your information, every common swear word can be heard in this aviary so please be aware if you have people with you of a sensitive nature.”