Parrots are known for their ability to mimic human speech and many people enjoy teaching them silly or crude language, but what may be fun in a private household could cause some issues with the general public.
This is the conundrum facing the Lincolnshire Wildlife Park , which has been forced to isolate a quintet of African gray parrots, according to the BBC.
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The parrots (Billy, Elsie, Eric, Jade, and Tyson) were adopted by the park in mid-August.
An important part of introducing new animals to any sanctuary community is quarantine, in case they are carrying any illnesses that could spread around.
Unfortunately, what spread between the five parrots during their quarantine together, was a very bad swearing habit.
One of the staff, Jess Newton, said that it was funny for a while, but she’d hoped they’d “kick the habit” before being seen by the public.
Instead, the opposite happened.
All five parrots seemed to egg each other on, getting louder and louder every time a human reacted to the display.
Though they didn’t receive any negative reviews from patrons, staff decided to nip that habit in the bud before it could spread to the other 250 parrots in the flock.
The five have been moved to more isolated colonies in the park and separated from each other.
Staff hopes that without the ongoing support of their swearing pals, the birds will learn new words and forget their old “very strong” language.
If so, they’ll be integrated back into the larger parrot community.
h/t: BBC
