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African Grey Parrots are known for their intelligence, ability to replicate human speech, and speak up to 1000 words. These types of birds are native to Congo and Africa, often reaching the age of 60 to 80 years in captivity. They are medium-sized and are predominantly grey with a black curved beak.
They can’t only speak human words, but they can also use them in the right context. So when they learn how to swear, especially when they are exposed to humans at the zoos, things could get ugly or funny. That is exactly what happened at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park, when five parrots had to be separated for repeatedly swearing at visitors and laughing at them.
A Parrot Comedy Club Gone Wild
Billy, Eric, Tyson, Jade, and Elsie are African grey parrots staying at the same captivity at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park. When visitors arrived, this group of parrots had already learned how to swear, so they almost immediately began cursing at guests.
However, rather than stopping, each parrot began to laugh after one swore at the guest. They kept on repeating, reinforcing each other’s behavior, and some visitors found it funny too. This was a bad habit that over 200 other African greys started to learn. So the staff had to decide to finally separate them because they are becoming a bad influence on the other birds.
Read more: CBS News
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Reinforcing Each Other
Parrot experts stated that they did not learn or introduce any new words, but rather have been using existing vocabulary. With each curse, the others laugh, creating mutual encouragement and feedback loops from the specific words.
Since they are getting a positive response from their social groups, all the parrots have continued this behavior; after all, they are a highly social creature that values their bonds and relationships.
Steve Nichols, the park’s CEO, explained that although the swearing and laughing were not harmful, the children at the park were hearing and seeing their behavior, so they relocated each of the five grey parrots to different locations, one which is a lot quieter.
Parrot Behavior Meets Human Laughter
When the birds swear at the visitors of the zoo, most people find it both shocking and hilarious, prompting a laugh, which is exactly what the parrots wanted. The laughter of the humans at every curse encourages the five to swear louder, laugh harder, and repeat the loop.
But since these birds live closely with a lot of other species and younger parrots, zookeepers were concerned that the other birds might mimic this behavior, creating widespread chaos in the whole zoo. Thus, although they might really be funny, it was inevitable that they would be separated.
Read more: New York Post
Time-Out for the Troublemakers
After Billy, Eric, Tyson, Jade, and Elsie were all separated and put in quieter areas, the experts hope that they could unlearn this behavior and words that they probably learned from a human.
Without each other, acting as the audience and reinforcing this habit, experts say that they might change for the better. They will undoubtedly mimic more words, but the hope was that they would find a gentler vocabulary, such as the usual “moo” or bird calls.
Social reinforcement is a very strong driver of behavior, not only for parrots but also for human beings and other social creatures. It is normal since we think highly of other individuals’ opinions about us. We all evolved that way, since we can’t survive on our own, so each social species wanted their tribe to accept them no matter what they have to do.
Author's Final Thoughts
Maybe having a time-out isn’t only for kids, but also for various other species as well. The five swearing African grey parrots at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park went viral online and in person, maybe because they sounded and acted a little too close to us. What if this is just nature’s way of holding up a mirror — and it just happened to reflect back a version of ourselves with feathers and a foul mouth, after all, parrots mimic.
Read more: Scientists Say Birds Can Use Quantum Physics to Perceive Earth’s Magnetic Field
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