Profanity-spewing parrots given a second chance at British zoo

Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Officials at a British zoo said a group of infamously foul-mouthed parrots that were isolated from the rest of the flock are being moved in with the rest of the chatty birds in the hopes of cleaning up their language.

The Lincolnshire Wildlife Park famously received five African gray parrots from different owners in 2020, and the new arrivals spent their time in quarantine teaching each other a variety of profanities.

The birds were removed from the rest of the zoo's flock to keep them from teaching their bad habits to dozens of other parrots.

Officials said the recent arrival of three more potty-mouthed parrots led them to make the decision to put all eight of the cussing birds in with the rest of the parrots.

"We've put eight really, really offensive, swearing parrots with 92 non-swearing ones," Steve Nichols, chief executive of the park, 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."

Nichols said keepers are hoping the swearing parrots will learn new sounds from the rest of the flock, instead of the other way around.

"We could end up with 100 swearing parrots on our hands. Only time will tell," he told the BBC.

He said integrating the parrots with the rest of the flock is worth the risk.

"Parrots are flock creatures. They need to be with other parrots. The bigger the flock, the happier they are," Nichols said. "Even though they swear, the welfare of the birds has to come first."

The zoo posted signs warning visitors about the potential for foul language, but Nichols said the swearing parrots have actually proven to be popular with the public.

"We did hear a lot more customers swearing at parrots than we did parrots swearing at customers," Nichols said.