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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.
“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.
“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.
Nichols believes the risky plan is so far, so good — but the chief executive admits they still curse, and even laugh after doing so.
Thanks for the chuckle! I've "rescued" (aka: taken them in when someone else turned them into monsters and couldn't wait to get rid of them) a few hookbills over the years so can really relate. The trick is to hold out longer than the parrot. As long as they get something good (a reaction...regardless if it's good or bad) from a behavior they'll keep doing it. Parrots (at least the ones I've met) thrive on drama.
Well if some swearing parrot needs a new home, I would be glad to have them. I think it's hilarious.
I always wanted a parrot who would swear in Russian. Maybe when a lady enters his field of view, he should say the equivalent of "Hey Baby!". Well it's funnier in the original Russian.
I don't think swearing parrots is funny or humorous at all. Clearly they learned this foul language from humans.
It's one thing for a thoughtless owner to intentionally teach a parrot to cuss, but sometimes they simply overhear it in everyday conversation. There are lots of very potty-mouthed humans around. If/when their bird swears people react, so a bored or neglected parrot learns swearing results in attention. As mentioned before, they tend to be drama queens. They love commotion. I'm certainly no prude and can cuss like a sailor (compliments of my navy dad) but I don't use language like that in conversation. I reserve it for the bashed toe, stupid mistake, frustration filling out a tax return, something when I'm alone with myself. Many folks don't.
An elderly lady friend of mine rescued parrots and had 2-3 African greys when I'd visit her years ago. They were always surprising her with what they picked up. One was incredibly skilled at mimicking many household sounds. Microwave beeps, burglar alarm keypad, clocks, kitchen appliance noises, creaky hinges, TV or radio chatter, everything. She got the bird from another family. They had several young kids and a new baby (one reason they got rid of the parrot). The parrot learned a lot from each of her families and would repeat words or phrases in the voice of the person she heard use it. The mom apparently shouted "because I told you to!" quite a bit. The parrot would shout "because I told you to!" in her voice. She also imitated baby crying and an obviously sulky kid screaming "I don' wanna!"
It caused a problem with phone calls. When the phone rang, my friend would drop what she was doing to answer the call, only to discover the parrot was imitating the ring tone and her run was wasted. She suspected the parrot enjoyed watching her rush around. So, clever person that she was, instead of struggling to extinguish a behavior the bird seemed to enjoy, she channeled it. She taught the parrot to "answer" a real the ring with "Hello!" If she heard the ringtone but NO Hello, she knew it was the parrot messing with her. If she heard the ringtone followed by "Hello!", she knew there really was a call coming in. The parrot certainly learned to say Hello quite easily...and did so in a perfect imitation of her teacher's distinctive low-pitched voice.
Another interesting thing was how quickly this parrot learned patterns in household activity. When my friend went out the front door it was usually to retrieve mail from her mailbox. She'd come back indoors in a couple of minutes. The parrot wouldn't say anything in particular. When she went out the back door she intended to be gone for some time. The back door led to the garage/car and that's where the burglar alarm keypad was mounted. The parrot knew she was actually leaving, so she'd politely announce "Goodbye!", again in my friend's voice.
Last edited by Parnassia; 01-28-2024 at 04:57 PM..
Haha, speaking of phone calls, I found this on the birdtrickstore.com website:
"I think my favorite ever story comes compliments of two blue and gold macaws owned by a young married couple I knew in Austin. I was visiting with them in their kitchen and the birds were on a huge play stand that occupied, well, most of the room. The house rules were that while the birds were in the kitchen, the dogs weren’t allowed in, and vice versa.The dogs were napping on the sofa in the living room. Birds being birds, however, the macaws were not to fond of following rules. They had devised their own little game.
One bird would, in the wife’s voice, call the dogs to the kitchen by name: “Here Trixie! Here Dingo!” The other bird, in the husband’s voice would yell at them to get out: “BAD DOGS!”. They had the dogs running back and forth for about 30 minutes. The owners just shook their heads while I laughed uncontrollably. Apparently, this goes on frequently."
The employees should have a music and dance class with the birds in place of swearing. Start out with it being lots of fun attention. Then when they swear stop the music and do what we would do with children say "bad" in a stern voice and tell the bird say sorry. When the bird learns to say sorry then give positive fun time with the birds. They are only saying what gives them attention or a positive laugh when people laugh and smile.
I would try to retrain them to say nice things appropriate for the public and children.
The employees should have a music and dance class with the birds in place of swearing. Start out with it being lots of fun attention. Then when they swear stop the music and do what we would do with children say "bad" in a stern voice and tell the bird say sorry. When the bird learns to say sorry then give positive fun time with the birds. They are only saying what gives them attention or a positive laugh when people laugh and smile.
Actually, reacting in any way when the parrot swears still gives the bird something it wants...attention. Whether that attention manifests in something positive or negative, it's still attention, especially if the bird doesn't get enough in general. People who own them can certainly appreciate how much social attention a parrot requires. The way to extinguish a behavior is to totally ignore it or make a point of leaving the room depriving the parrot of what it wants: company, engagement, activity to observe. That can be pretty difficult to keep up. Hookbills have incredible long term memory. Of course, when the parrot does something you want it to, rewarding it will help reinforce it. The key is understanding what "reward" actually means to the bird, not just to you.
Actually, reacting in any way when the parrot swears still gives the bird something it wants...attention. Whether that attention manifests in something positive or negative, it's still attention, especially if the bird doesn't get enough in general. People who own them can certainly appreciate how much social attention a parrot requires. The way to extinguish a behavior is to totally ignore it or make a point of leaving the room depriving the parrot of what it wants: company, engagement, activity to observe. That can be pretty difficult to keep up. Hookbills have incredible long term memory. Of course, when the parrot does something you want it to, rewarding it will help reinforce it. The key is understanding what "reward" actually means to the bird, not just to you.
Oh no I meant dancing when not swearing. I should have made that more clear. But as soon as the bird swears stop the fun attention. I thought positive fun activities would help them want that more than being walked away from and left alone. Sort of a time out.
Last edited by staystill; 02-01-2024 at 03:15 PM..
Reason: I like your posts Darn I can't rate you positively. I must have done it to much
It's one thing for a thoughtless owner to intentionally teach a parrot to cuss, but sometimes they simply overhear it in everyday conversation. There are lots of very potty-mouthed humans around. If/when their bird swears people react, so a bored or neglected parrot learns swearing results in attention. As mentioned before, they tend to be drama queens. They love commotion. I'm certainly no prude and can cuss like a sailor (compliments of my navy dad) but I don't use language like that in conversation. I reserve it for the bashed toe, stupid mistake, frustration filling out a tax return, something when I'm alone with myself. Many folks don't.
An elderly lady friend of mine rescued parrots and had 2-3 African greys when I'd visit her years ago. They were always surprising her with what they picked up. One was incredibly skilled at mimicking many household sounds. Microwave beeps, burglar alarm keypad, clocks, kitchen appliance noises, creaky hinges, TV or radio chatter, everything. She got the bird from another family. They had several young kids and a new baby (one reason they got rid of the parrot). The parrot learned a lot from each of her families and would repeat words or phrases in the voice of the person she heard use it. The mom apparently shouted "because I told you to!" quite a bit. The parrot would shout "because I told you to!" in her voice. She also imitated baby crying and an obviously sulky kid screaming "I don' wanna!"
It caused a problem with phone calls. When the phone rang, my friend would drop what she was doing to answer the call, only to discover the parrot was imitating the ring tone and her run was wasted. She suspected the parrot enjoyed watching her rush around. So, clever person that she was, instead of struggling to extinguish a behavior the bird seemed to enjoy, she channeled it. She taught the parrot to "answer" a real the ring with "Hello!" If she heard the ringtone but NO Hello, she knew it was the parrot messing with her. If she heard the ringtone followed by "Hello!", she knew there really was a call coming in. The parrot certainly learned to say Hello quite easily...and did so in a perfect imitation of her teacher's distinctive low-pitched voice.
Another interesting thing was how quickly this parrot learned patterns in household activity. When my friend went out the front door it was usually to retrieve mail from her mailbox. She'd come back indoors in a couple of minutes. The parrot wouldn't say anything in particular. When she went out the back door she intended to be gone for some time. The back door led to the garage/car and that's where the burglar alarm keypad was mounted. The parrot knew she was actually leaving, so she'd politely announce "Goodbye!", again in my friend's voice.
When we were kids, growing up in Florida, the rule in our house was to be where we could hear our mother, if she was calling us home.
We had neighbors who had 2 Macaws. A red one and a blue one. Sometimes, on pretty days, the neighbors would have the macaws in a big cage in their back yard.
Those birds learned my mother's voice, and would sometimes call us home. We'd go home, only to find out it was the parrots calling us home. It could get annoying. lol
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) but I don't use language like that in conversation. I reserve it for the bashed toe, stupid mistake, frustration filling out a tax return, something when I'm alone with myself. Many folks don't. 
