EXCLUSIVE: Potty-mouthed parrots have even been dropping C-bombs, but wildlife park bosses are embracing their colourful language, saying mixing them with more well-mannered birds ‘didn’t really work’
Foul-mouthed parrots turning the air blue at a wildlife park had to be separated because of their colourful language. But after initially separating the cursing birds, zoo bosses and visitors are now embracing their salty language – with “little old ladies” getting in on the act.
African grey parrots Billy, Eric, Tyson, Jade and Elsie first had to go into isolation during the pandemic after they wouldn’t stop effing and jeffing at zoo visitors. When one swore, the others would laugh hilariously – leading Lincolnshire Wildlife Park bosses to separate them so that young ears wouldn’t be offended.
The park’s chief executive, Steve Nichols, then tried mixing them with a larger flock in the hope the more well-behaved parrots would teach them better manners. But the filthy-beaked birds have been a bad influence on some of their new feathered friends – with Sheila, Charlie, Captain now regularly joining in with the profanities.
Steve told your Daily Star: “When I’m walking around getting on with my work and a parrot tells me to ‘eff off’, it’s impossible not to laugh. Only African greys can do a human voice and I think it’s so funny to hear it coming back in a human voice.
“A parrot always swears in the same way, and you get an idea of who the person is that they learned it from. So Elsie sounds like a little old lady when she swears!”
Steve sweated over whether the saucy language would offend zoo visitors, saying: “My first instinct was to get them away from young children. We’re also very popular with WI groups, and I was worried these purple-rinse little old ladies might be offended. But it’s quite fun for the staff to walk past these little old ladies and hear the swear words they say – they’re not as innocent as you might think!”
Fed up with his social media videos being gatecrashed by cursing birds, Steve decided to embrace the fowl language – with one parrot squawking “f**k off” at the end of a YouTube Shorts clip.
In a video posted on TikTok, he said: “As I’m walking past, I might hear a parrot say ‘Oh you fat B_’ and you think, that’s not really good, I don’t really want that. “Then one will tell you to eff off. Then when you walk past and somebody uses the C word or something like that, you think, ‘my lord that is a bit too much’.”
The hope was that if they were integrated into a bigger group, the foul-beaked birds would learn more common parrot noises, such as imitating microwaves, telephones and vehicles reversing. However, that backfired slightly as it led to more parrots picking up the profanities.
“It didn’t really work,” said Steve. “There was one or two of them that picked up the swear words. They do it at the most inopportune times. They’ll do everything from a very short noise to a really long noise, and then his head starts bobbing, and he starts laughing himself and walks away., and you think ‘oh no, not another one’. So between swearing and farting, I don’t know if it’s a good place to bring your kids!”
Steve said the parrots are doing a great job of marketing the zoo, telling the Daily Star: “When people visit, the first thing they aim for is the sign that says ‘Warning, swearing parrots’. We’ve had people make songs about it on TikTok. It really helps the charity.
“The parrots offer some humour in what can be a very serious and tough world at times. I know I’m always cheered up if I walk past and a parrot tells me to eff off!”
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