British Zoo Rehabilitates African Gray Parrot Because It Swears

JAKARTA - A zoo in England has drawn up a plan to rehabilitate foul-mouthed parrots after they uttered swear words.

In 2020, five foul-mouthed African gray parrots, donated to Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in eastern England, were isolated from their flock to improve their language skills.

However, starting last January, the team adopted a different and riskier approach by integrating three recently donated birds, named Eric, Captain, and Sheila, along with five other badly behaved birds into its flock.

"When we moved it, the language that came out of the carrying case was phenomenal, very bad. Not ordinary swear words, these were proper swear words," park chief executive Steve Nichols told CNN, as quoted March 21.

"We've placed eight parrots that actually offend and swear and 92 birds that don't swear," he said.

If the new strategy works, the eight parrots can learn "all the good sounds that the other parrots in the flock like, Nichols added. But if the other 92 birds utter curse words, "it will turn into a full-grown aviary," he added.

After some time in isolation, integrating the five native birds into the flock was "mostly" successful, Nichols said, but they still occasionally swore, and even laughed afterward, imitating the most common reaction to their foul language.

Parrots imitate the sounds they hear, so "six of them sound like men, two of them sound like women, and when they all swear, they sound really bad," explains Nichols.

The park has put up a large sign warning visitors about parrot language, but Nichols said they haven't received a single complaint.

In fact, historically, "we hear more customers swearing at parrots than parrots swearing at customers," explains Nichols.

It is known that African gray parrots are very social parrots, forming groups of up to 1,000 to roost at night in the wild and communicate with each other through various calls.

Researchers believe their intelligence is almost unrivaled in the animal world, comparable to apes, whales, and dolphins.

Swear words are very easy for the birds to imitate because they are almost always said in the same tone and context, without any other words around them, Nichols explained.

"When you tell someone to fuck off, you usually say the same thing every time," he said.

For now, the park hopes they will learn the sounds their flock makes, and improve their speech.

"I just left them there and there was a lot of noise, which was great, from creaking gates to doors slamming, people laughing and cell phones," Nichols explained.

"I hope it's part of the adjustment period, but I don't think they will ever lose their swearing because as soon as someone swears, they will curse too," he said.