The birds had been on display at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park’s Friskney park, but they had to be removed when they all learned each other to ᴄᴜʀsᴇ – and laughed about it. Five parrots had to be removed from a UK safari park after they began ᴄᴜʀsɪɴɢ at tourists.
The new flock arrived on August 15 at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park’s Friskney park, which opened in 2003 and is home to around 1,500 parrots. The birds were ɪᴍᴘʀɪsᴏɴᴇᴅ together in the same room, but it quickly became clear that they all had one thing in common: the capacity to sᴄʀᴇᴀᴍ ᴏʙsᴄᴇɴɪᴛɪᴇs.
Staff at the park couldn’t help but crack and smile when they heard the ꜰɪʟᴛʜʏ language, which the park’s chief executive officer Steve Nichols claimed just encouraged the birds more, according to LincolnshireLive. “For the previous 25 years, we have always brought in parrots that have occasionally had a little of blue language, and we have really gotten used to that,” he added.
Every now and then, you’ll hear one ᴄᴜʀsᴇ, and it’s always amusing. We usually find it amusing when they sᴡᴇᴀʀ at you. But, by chance, we brought in five in the same week, and because they were all confined together, one room was filled with ᴄᴜʀsɪɴɢ birds.”
“When they sᴡᴇᴀʀ, you generally laugh, which causes them to sᴡᴇᴀʀ again.” But when you have four or five together that have acquired the ᴄᴜʀsɪɴɢ and naturally learnt the laughing so when one ᴄᴜʀsᴇs, one laughs and before you know it just got to be like an old working men’s’ club situation where they are all just sᴡᴇᴀʀing and laughing.”
The birds were soon on exhibit, but it didn’t take long for the sᴡᴇᴀʀing to return. Mr Nichols, who acknowledges it’s amusing when the birds sᴡᴇᴀʀ, said: “We were informed literally within 20 minutes of being in the introductory that they had sworn at a client and for the next group of guests, all sorts of ᴏʙsᴄᴇɴɪᴛɪᴇs came out.”
“And for one of our young girls, they really ᴀʙᴜsᴇd her.” We thought it was hilarious, and the clients were wonderful — they were no trouble at all. But we were concerned since we had a weekend coming up and children were expected.” Despite the desire to make people laugh during some really scary periods with ᴄᴏʀᴏɴᴀᴠɪʀᴜs, it was decided to place the birds where they couldn’t be heard before children came.
“We put them in an off-shore cage with the aim that they will start learning the other parrots’ noises that are around,” Mr Nichols explained. They are African grey parrots, and they are quite adept at acquiring vocalizations from a wide range of stimuli.”
“What we’ll do now is unleash them, but in different places, so that even if they sᴡᴇᴀʀ it’s not as horrible as three or four of them all blasting it out at once.” Mr. Nichols agrees that the s.ᴡᴇᴀʀing parrots have brought some light relief amid a difficult period for the park due to the epidemic. “It’s been incredibly difficult,” he remarked.
For this year, the organization is expected to lose between £300,000 and £400,000. It has been a difficult year, but we are perpetual optimists and have no choice. We must continue on. We’re already preparing for Easter next year, hoping that everything will be back to normal by then.”
The park has also made news throughout the world after a video of Chico, one of the park’s parrots, performing Beyonce’s “If I Were a Boy” went viral. And, according to Mr. Nichols, this, along with the sᴡᴇᴀʀing parrots, has been beneficial to business. “It has maintained some semblance of normalcy,” he remarked.
It hasn’t brought in any money or made us feel more secure, but a lot of people have been to visit him. They really came to visit Chico, and now that they’ve heard about the s.ᴡᴇᴀʀing parrots, it’s quite a weird situation where you’re going about and people are ᴄᴜʀsɪɴɢ at aviaries in the hopes of getting a parrot to sᴡᴇᴀʀ back at them.”
“At the moment, it’s turned into an adult theme park, but only for language.” It’s all been a lot of fun — it’s been fantastic. It’s been a difficult year, but it’s finished with a grin.”
