Wildlife Park Reintegrates Five Foul-Mouthed Grey Parrots With Larger Flock to ‘Dilute’ Excessive Swearing

The U.K.’s Lincolnshire Wildlife Park is reintegrating five particularly foul-mouthed African grey parrots, according to the BBC. Billy, Tyson, Eric, Jade, and Elsie have been separated from the rest of the flock since 2020, but they’ve still managed to become the park’s star attraction. They’ve also rubbed off on three other birds, who’ve taken to spewing a cacophony of outrageous obscenities at gleeful guests.

"We've put eight really, really offensive, swearing parrots with 92 non-swearing ones," the park’s chief executive, Steve Nichols, told CNN. He’s hoping the 92 good influences will “dilute” the salty language.

"When we came to move them, the language that came out of their carrying boxes was phenomenal, really bad,” Nichols said. “Not normal swear words, these were proper expletives." He said the issue only grew worse after emboldened guests took to shouting increasingly creative obscenities at the birds.

Judging from social media accounts, the parrots have very sharp tongues indeed. “Afternoon out with the spawns at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park,” TikTok user @kimmage8787 wrote last year. “They had swearing parrots, so now Ron’s favorite word is ‘wanker.’” In another video taken from inside the park, you can briefly hear a bird saying what sounds like “wanker,” or possibly a different six-letter obscenity.

The birds arrived at the zoo in 2020, and because they were donated by various people around the U.K., they had to spend three months in quarantine before they could go on display. During this time, park officials began to notice a startling trend.

“All five had their own repertoire of ‘blue language,’” reads a statement from the park announcing the birds’ rehoming, which also doubles as a disclaimer warning guests about their swearing. “Within a very short time, it sounded like an old man’s working club in that room, as they all let out variations of foul language, followed by laughs."

The birds were separated from one another, but that hasn't brought an end to their foul speech. If anything it's worsened, and now three other birds have picked up the habit.

“We have integrated them with a group of greys that are also renowned for their vocabulary, but of nicer words, in the hopes that they will pick those sounds and words up…and drop the foul language!” the statement continued.

Speaking to BBC, Nichols voiced hope for the parrots now that they’re surrounded by more of their own. "Parrots are flock creatures. They need to be with other parrots. The bigger the flock, the happier they are,” he explained. "Even though they swear, the welfare of the birds has to come first."

He doesn’t expect the birds to ever completely cease swearing, noting that “once [a word is] in their vocabulary, it's usually there for good.” But he does believe the parrots will learn to "imitate other sounds as well,” in turn making the profanities less frequent.

However, Nichols acknowledged that this plan could easily go south. "We could end up with 100 swearing parrots on our hands,” he admitted. “Only time will tell."