Odd News
Zoo removes parrots from display for swearing at visitors
Parrots at a UK zoo ruffled quite a few feathers when they started swearing at visitors. The Lincolnshire Wildlife Park said the five African grey parrots were removed from public display for cursing customers, reports Lincolnshire Live.
The parrots, named Eric, Jade, Elsie, Tyson and Billy, had arrived at the zoo only recently. They were given to the Lincolnshire Wildlife Park by different owners within the same week and zoo authorities decided to quarantine them together. After a very short period of time, they started throwing obscenities at each other – and at visitors when the birds were put on public display.
Park officials say that they taught each other to swear during their time together.
“It just went ballistic, they were all swearing,” park chief executive Steve Nichols told CNN Travel. “We were a little concerned about the children.”
“For the last 25 years, we have always taken in parrots that have sometimes had a bit of blue language and we have really gotten used to that,” he added to Lincolnshire Live.
“Every now and then you’ll get one that swears and it’s always funny. We always find it very comical when they do swear at you.
“But, just by coincidence, we took in five in the same week and because they were all quarantined together it meant that one room was just full of swearing birds.
Zoo authorities had hoped that putting the birds on display would help them kick their bad habit. Instead, visitors laughing at their foul language only encouraged them further.
“The more they swear the more you usually laugh which then triggers them to swear again,” said Mr Nichols.
Concerns about children being exposed to the foul language prompted zoo authorities to separate the parrots and remove them from public view.
“I’m hoping they learn different words within colonies – but if they teach the others bad language and I end up with 250 swearing birds, I don’t know what we’ll do,” Mr Nichols told the BBC.”Some visitors found it funny but with kids visiting at weekends, we decided to move them.”
Staff is hoping that their language will become more family-friendly with time.
Odd News
Message in bottle floats from Canada to Ireland in 13 years
A message in a bottle launched by visitors to Newfoundland’s Bell Island was found washed up on an Irish beach nearly 13 years later, after apparently crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
Kate Gay said she was walking a Dingle Peninsula beach this week when she spotted the wine bottle with a sheet of paper inside.
Gay showed the bottle to members of Creative Ireland NeartnaMacharaí during a meeting at her house that evening, and they broke the bottle open.
The note, written by a couple named Brad and Anita, was dated Sept. 12, 2012. The letter described the couple’s day trip to Bell Island.
There was a phone number on the letter, but there was no answer when group members tried to call.
The Maharees Heritage and Conservation group posted photos of the bottleto social media on Monday, and within an hour group members were messaging with Anita.
Group member Martha Farrell said Anita reported that she and Brad had married in 2016 and are still together to this day. -upi.com
Odd News
Woman earns world record for collection of 15,485 egg cups
A Spanish woman who has been collecting egg cups for over 50 years earned a Guinness World Record when her collection was tallied at 15,485 items.
María José Fuster recruited two witnesses to help her tally her collection at a community center in her hometown of Campo, Spain.
Fuster’s collection includes multiple patterns, colors, designs and even novelty cups bearing the images of characters including Superman, Betty Boop and Garfield.
Fuster maintains two blogs related to her hobby — one to catalog each piece, and one to list the names of the people who have donated egg cups to her collection.
Some of her most prized egg cups, about 1,143 of them, are currently on display at a local museum.
-upi.com
