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Animals Behaving Badly
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Re: Animals Behaving Badly
Elephant herd tramples car after baby struck along Malaysian highway
Not really bad - Justified
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/28/asia/ele ... index.html
CNN
—
A herd of wild elephants in Malaysia trampled on a car traveling along a major highway after it struck a baby in their group, local authorities said Monday.
The car, a white Perodua Axia, was being driven by a 48-year-old man, along with his wife and son, 23, according to a statement issued by police in Gerik, in the Malay Peninsula.
The family of three were driving on a major highway from the island of Penang to the northeastern coastal state of Terengganu at around 7.35 p.m. local time on Sunday, when it crashed into the elephant calf.
It had been drizzling and foggy at that time, Gerik Police added, and the car was “negotiating a left bend on the highway” when it hit the baby elephant.
“The car slammed into the young elephant that was walking on the road with the herd,” said Zulkifli Mahmood, Chief Superintendent at Gerik District Police. The calf fell to the ground upon impact, he added.
“Seeing this, the other (five) elephants rushed towards the car and started trampling it.”
The herd then left the area after the calf “got back up,” Mahmood said.
Gerik Police did not specify if the three family members had been inside the car during the incident but no deaths or serious injuries were reported in the police statement.
Photos provided showed extensive damage to the front and sides of the white vehicle, with its side doors caved in. All windows were also smashed.
Authorities did not provide further updates about the condition of the elephant baby.
Elephant-human encounters
As a result of Malaysia’s rapid development of highways, wild elephants across the peninsula have lost large amounts of forest cover, forcing many to venture out to roads to find food, conservationists say.
In the latest accident, Gerik police warned drivers to exercise more caution on highways as herds of elephants regularly roam the area.
Signs warning drivers of elephant crossings are also put up along many highways, particularly in the country’s north but accidents have still occured.
In 2017, a baby elephant was discovered dead on the side of a highway, apparently killed by a car believed to have been speeding, elephant conservation group Management and Ecology of Malaysian Elephants (MEME) said at the time.
Other elephant encounters are also reported on several highways.
In May 2022, a lone adult elephant was spotted walking along a highway also in the Gerik area. Videos shared on social media showed the elephant ambling past bewildered drivers.
In 2020, a distressed adult elephant trampled on a car that had been traveling on the same highway as the latest incident. The elephant was believed to have panicked after several vehicles started honking at it, local authorities said at the time.
PP
Not really bad - Justified
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/28/asia/ele ... index.html
CNN
—
A herd of wild elephants in Malaysia trampled on a car traveling along a major highway after it struck a baby in their group, local authorities said Monday.
The car, a white Perodua Axia, was being driven by a 48-year-old man, along with his wife and son, 23, according to a statement issued by police in Gerik, in the Malay Peninsula.
The family of three were driving on a major highway from the island of Penang to the northeastern coastal state of Terengganu at around 7.35 p.m. local time on Sunday, when it crashed into the elephant calf.
It had been drizzling and foggy at that time, Gerik Police added, and the car was “negotiating a left bend on the highway” when it hit the baby elephant.
“The car slammed into the young elephant that was walking on the road with the herd,” said Zulkifli Mahmood, Chief Superintendent at Gerik District Police. The calf fell to the ground upon impact, he added.
“Seeing this, the other (five) elephants rushed towards the car and started trampling it.”
The herd then left the area after the calf “got back up,” Mahmood said.
Gerik Police did not specify if the three family members had been inside the car during the incident but no deaths or serious injuries were reported in the police statement.
Photos provided showed extensive damage to the front and sides of the white vehicle, with its side doors caved in. All windows were also smashed.
Authorities did not provide further updates about the condition of the elephant baby.
Elephant-human encounters
As a result of Malaysia’s rapid development of highways, wild elephants across the peninsula have lost large amounts of forest cover, forcing many to venture out to roads to find food, conservationists say.
In the latest accident, Gerik police warned drivers to exercise more caution on highways as herds of elephants regularly roam the area.
Signs warning drivers of elephant crossings are also put up along many highways, particularly in the country’s north but accidents have still occured.
In 2017, a baby elephant was discovered dead on the side of a highway, apparently killed by a car believed to have been speeding, elephant conservation group Management and Ecology of Malaysian Elephants (MEME) said at the time.
Other elephant encounters are also reported on several highways.
In May 2022, a lone adult elephant was spotted walking along a highway also in the Gerik area. Videos shared on social media showed the elephant ambling past bewildered drivers.
In 2020, a distressed adult elephant trampled on a car that had been traveling on the same highway as the latest incident. The elephant was believed to have panicked after several vehicles started honking at it, local authorities said at the time.
PP
Re: Bad Dogs Twofer
Two stray dogs cause more than $350,000 in damage at car dealership
A Houston-area car dealership is eager for a fresh start in 2024 after two stray dogs caused more than $350,000 worth of damage to its inventory and scared away potential customers. CNN affiliate KTRK has more.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2024/01/0 ... g-vpx.ktrk
FM-1960 dealership compassionate about canines' fates after cars destroyed: 'We feel for these dogs'
https://abc13.com/dogs-tear-apart-cars- ... /14262071/
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- You may remember surveillance video that only ABC13 showed you a few weeks ago of vicious stray dogs causing hundreds of dollars in damage to cars at a FM-1960 dealership.
The two dogs behind the damage are now in the custody of BARC, the the city of Houston's animal control, according to G Motors' management.
A Stafford mix was the first of the canines caught about a month ago. BARC named him Dasher.
The second dog was captured on Saturday.
There is video of at least four incidents where Dasher and his buddy are ripping cars to shreds on the lot.
PREVIOUS STORY: ONLY ON 13: Dogs tear apart cars at dealership, resulting in up to $350K in damage
A Cypress-area dealership thought a wolf was behind the carnage left behind to its vehicles. Instead, as video only on 13 shows, stray dogs were behind it.
Finance manager Imran Haq said between November and December, the dogs caused more than $350,000 worth of property damage.
"Especially the brown dog (Dasher) was the more aggressive kind of nature dog. The black one was more of a follower," Haq said.
After the first incident, Haq and sales manager, Gaby Fakhoury, contacted BARC.
Using BARC's cages and some cat food, they trapped Dasher about a month ago.
The black dog took a little longer to catch. Haq said they needed to strategically move the traps around the lot.
"We are going to start a new year over in 2024 with no fear of dogs," said Haq.
Fakhoury said the dogs were scaring off customers and employees.
"(I) just want all my customers to know that everything is taken cared of, and you know, we feel for these dogs, to be honest. But they are in good hands, so we don't have to worry about them right now. They can be adopted, or whatever the city of Houston wants to do," Fakhoury said.
A BARC spokesperson said Dasher was cleared by medical staff and showed no signs of aggression towards people, so he's adoptable.
His co-conspirator is safe but still being evaluated and waiting on a name.
Fakhoury wished them the best, chalking this up to a bizarre life lesson in problem solving.
"We have never seen something like this - dogs attacking cars and causing damage, but things happen, and there's always a solution for everything," Fakhoury said.
Employees at BARC theorized the dogs were chasing cats that were hiding under the cars.
'It's rough': Owners have to clean $4,000 cash eaten by their dog
Goldendoodle diddles with bank withdrawal, eating $4,000! CNN's Jeanne Moos reports Cecil has an appetite for big bills.
PP
A Houston-area car dealership is eager for a fresh start in 2024 after two stray dogs caused more than $350,000 worth of damage to its inventory and scared away potential customers. CNN affiliate KTRK has more.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2024/01/0 ... g-vpx.ktrk
FM-1960 dealership compassionate about canines' fates after cars destroyed: 'We feel for these dogs'
https://abc13.com/dogs-tear-apart-cars- ... /14262071/
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- You may remember surveillance video that only ABC13 showed you a few weeks ago of vicious stray dogs causing hundreds of dollars in damage to cars at a FM-1960 dealership.
The two dogs behind the damage are now in the custody of BARC, the the city of Houston's animal control, according to G Motors' management.
A Stafford mix was the first of the canines caught about a month ago. BARC named him Dasher.
The second dog was captured on Saturday.
There is video of at least four incidents where Dasher and his buddy are ripping cars to shreds on the lot.
PREVIOUS STORY: ONLY ON 13: Dogs tear apart cars at dealership, resulting in up to $350K in damage
A Cypress-area dealership thought a wolf was behind the carnage left behind to its vehicles. Instead, as video only on 13 shows, stray dogs were behind it.
Finance manager Imran Haq said between November and December, the dogs caused more than $350,000 worth of property damage.
"Especially the brown dog (Dasher) was the more aggressive kind of nature dog. The black one was more of a follower," Haq said.
After the first incident, Haq and sales manager, Gaby Fakhoury, contacted BARC.
Using BARC's cages and some cat food, they trapped Dasher about a month ago.
The black dog took a little longer to catch. Haq said they needed to strategically move the traps around the lot.
"We are going to start a new year over in 2024 with no fear of dogs," said Haq.
Fakhoury said the dogs were scaring off customers and employees.
"(I) just want all my customers to know that everything is taken cared of, and you know, we feel for these dogs, to be honest. But they are in good hands, so we don't have to worry about them right now. They can be adopted, or whatever the city of Houston wants to do," Fakhoury said.
A BARC spokesperson said Dasher was cleared by medical staff and showed no signs of aggression towards people, so he's adoptable.
His co-conspirator is safe but still being evaluated and waiting on a name.
Fakhoury wished them the best, chalking this up to a bizarre life lesson in problem solving.
"We have never seen something like this - dogs attacking cars and causing damage, but things happen, and there's always a solution for everything," Fakhoury said.
Employees at BARC theorized the dogs were chasing cats that were hiding under the cars.
'It's rough': Owners have to clean $4,000 cash eaten by their dog
Goldendoodle diddles with bank withdrawal, eating $4,000! CNN's Jeanne Moos reports Cecil has an appetite for big bills.
PP
Re: Animals Behaving Badly
‘It smelled so bad’: Pennsylvania couple recovers $3,550 after dog eats cash
Clayton and Carrie Law withdrew $4,000 in cash and placed it on their counter when seven-year-old Cecil decided to eat it
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... poops-cash
A Pennsylvania dog shocked his owners and veterinarian after eating $4,000 in cash.
Cecil, a seven-year old goldendoodle from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is usually well behaved, according to his owners, Clayton and Carrie Law.
But last month, Cecil ate $4,000 in cash that had been sitting on the Laws’ kitchen counter, waiting to be stowed away.
“This dog, I swear to God, has never touched anything in his life,” Carrie, 33, told the Pittsburgh City Paper.
“Suddenly Clayton yelled to me, ‘Cecil’s eating $4,000!!!!!’ I thought, ‘I cannot be hearing that.’ I almost had a heart attack,” she added, referring to her husband Clayton, 34.
The money had been a withdrawal from the couple’s joint savings account, the Washington Post reported. Within 30 minutes of retrieving the funds from their local bank, Cecil had already chowed down on the cash, leaving behind just some torn bits of their money.
The panicked couple first reached out to Cecil’s vet to see if the dog needed any medical treatment. Thankfully, given his size, Cecil only needed to be monitored at home, the Post reported.
The couple then got to work trying to piece together the remaining bills that Cecil hadn’t chewed … and the ones he had already eaten.
Chewed dollar bills
Cold hard cash that Cecil, a dog, ate. Photograph: Courtesy Carrie Law
The bank told the couple that money accidents involving dogs happen frequently. As long as the serial number on the bills were visible, the bank would take back the chewed money.
While Cecil had thrown up some of the ingested money, the Laws had to recover much of the cash through Cecil’s bowel movements.
“There we are at the utility sink,” Carrie said to the City Paper. “[We were] washing this **** money, yelling ‘Yay! Yes! We got one!’ It smelled so bad.”
Carrie told the Post that she’d “never thought” she’d be “able to say I’ve laundered money, but there is apparently a first time for everything”.
After sifting through the torn pieces – both from outside and inside Cecil, the Laws managed to tape together nearly all of the money that had been eaten. Miraculously, the couple lost only $450 from the whole ordeal.
The Laws posted a video about the incident to Instagram, where news of Cecil’s misadventures quickly went viral.
“The puzzle no one wanted to complete this Christmas,” one user wrote.
Another commenter joked that they would no longer be asking for a dog as a Christmas gift.
Cecil isn’t the only dog in recent years to ingest a large sum of money. Last year, a Florida woman also went viral after her labrador chewed up nearly $2,000 worth of cash, Newsweek reported.
PP
Clayton and Carrie Law withdrew $4,000 in cash and placed it on their counter when seven-year-old Cecil decided to eat it
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... poops-cash
A Pennsylvania dog shocked his owners and veterinarian after eating $4,000 in cash.
Cecil, a seven-year old goldendoodle from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is usually well behaved, according to his owners, Clayton and Carrie Law.
But last month, Cecil ate $4,000 in cash that had been sitting on the Laws’ kitchen counter, waiting to be stowed away.
“This dog, I swear to God, has never touched anything in his life,” Carrie, 33, told the Pittsburgh City Paper.
“Suddenly Clayton yelled to me, ‘Cecil’s eating $4,000!!!!!’ I thought, ‘I cannot be hearing that.’ I almost had a heart attack,” she added, referring to her husband Clayton, 34.
The money had been a withdrawal from the couple’s joint savings account, the Washington Post reported. Within 30 minutes of retrieving the funds from their local bank, Cecil had already chowed down on the cash, leaving behind just some torn bits of their money.
The panicked couple first reached out to Cecil’s vet to see if the dog needed any medical treatment. Thankfully, given his size, Cecil only needed to be monitored at home, the Post reported.
The couple then got to work trying to piece together the remaining bills that Cecil hadn’t chewed … and the ones he had already eaten.
Chewed dollar bills
Cold hard cash that Cecil, a dog, ate. Photograph: Courtesy Carrie Law
The bank told the couple that money accidents involving dogs happen frequently. As long as the serial number on the bills were visible, the bank would take back the chewed money.
While Cecil had thrown up some of the ingested money, the Laws had to recover much of the cash through Cecil’s bowel movements.
“There we are at the utility sink,” Carrie said to the City Paper. “[We were] washing this **** money, yelling ‘Yay! Yes! We got one!’ It smelled so bad.”
Carrie told the Post that she’d “never thought” she’d be “able to say I’ve laundered money, but there is apparently a first time for everything”.
After sifting through the torn pieces – both from outside and inside Cecil, the Laws managed to tape together nearly all of the money that had been eaten. Miraculously, the couple lost only $450 from the whole ordeal.
The Laws posted a video about the incident to Instagram, where news of Cecil’s misadventures quickly went viral.
“The puzzle no one wanted to complete this Christmas,” one user wrote.
Another commenter joked that they would no longer be asking for a dog as a Christmas gift.
Cecil isn’t the only dog in recent years to ingest a large sum of money. Last year, a Florida woman also went viral after her labrador chewed up nearly $2,000 worth of cash, Newsweek reported.
PP
Re: Animals Behaving Badly
More on Cecil the money eating dog:
Dog eats $4,000 in cash off the counter. The unpleasant way his owners got it back
The couple said their dog, Cecil, had never, in all seven years of his life, got up on the counter and typically is more of a snuggly couch potato.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/do ... rcna132431
The dog eating your homework is a story as old as time. But for one Pennsylvania couple, the adage somehow came true and briefly cost them thousands of dollars.
Clayton and Carrie Law had taken cash out to do a home improvement project and left the envelope of money on the countertop when their dog, Cecil, decided it was time for a very expensive snack.
“I just walked around the house just doing stuff and came back and then all of a sudden, I walked in on Cecil just standing over a pile of mutilated cash, essentially,” Clayton Law said with a laugh.
The Laws say Cecil had never, in all seven years of his life, got on the counter before and typically is more of a snuggly couch potato.
“So this was like, pretty shocking,” Carrie Law says of her 100-pound doodle. “It’s just never been of interest to him.”
Clayton Law says they were “in disbelief.”
“It was so out of character that it just didn’t seem real,” he says.
The dog seemed fine, at first, until the middle of the night when the Laws were awoken by a sound every dog owner knows all too well: the gagging of their pet about to vomit.
“When you hear that, you immediately just react, so I jumped out of bed and just made sure that he didn’t throw up anywhere. Not great,” Clayton Law says. “And then I went to pick it up...and I realized: ‘There’s a lot of like half-eaten and $100 bills and $50 bills here.’”
That night was the first of many in the coming days where the Laws had the unfortunate task of sifting through their dog’s bodily waste.
They were able to find most of the bills through this unpleasant task, carefully washing and sorting the pieces to put them back together.
“We hit this point... (of) diminishing returns,” Clayton Law says. “We just kind of called it quits after two or three days.”
They pieced together as many bills as they could — they had to have more than 50% of each bill to get their money back — and their bank swapped them out. In the end, the two were able to recoup $3,550, they say.
“It was an expensive puzzle,” Clayton Law laughs.
The bank was “really nice about it,” Carrie Law says, and told them that this happens all the time.
“They said it actually happens quite a bit because money just picks up so many scents, especially if it’s used in the food industry,” she says. “I guess dogs pick up on that — they have such a good sense of smell — and something about it just drove him crazy.”
Their original home improvement project — a new fence — still hasn’t quite happened but for now, they’re settling on another one: creating art with the remaining pieces of money they couldn’t put back together.
The Laws also shared Cecil’s story to social media, where it went viral.
“We’re just happy the story’s making people laugh,” Carrie Law says. “I think a lot of people can relate to this because we’ve all had a pet or a kid that has done something silly like this in one way or the other and you just can’t be mad at them. You just have to love them anyway.”
PP
Dog eats $4,000 in cash off the counter. The unpleasant way his owners got it back
The couple said their dog, Cecil, had never, in all seven years of his life, got up on the counter and typically is more of a snuggly couch potato.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/do ... rcna132431
The dog eating your homework is a story as old as time. But for one Pennsylvania couple, the adage somehow came true and briefly cost them thousands of dollars.
Clayton and Carrie Law had taken cash out to do a home improvement project and left the envelope of money on the countertop when their dog, Cecil, decided it was time for a very expensive snack.
“I just walked around the house just doing stuff and came back and then all of a sudden, I walked in on Cecil just standing over a pile of mutilated cash, essentially,” Clayton Law said with a laugh.
The Laws say Cecil had never, in all seven years of his life, got on the counter before and typically is more of a snuggly couch potato.
“So this was like, pretty shocking,” Carrie Law says of her 100-pound doodle. “It’s just never been of interest to him.”
Clayton Law says they were “in disbelief.”
“It was so out of character that it just didn’t seem real,” he says.
The dog seemed fine, at first, until the middle of the night when the Laws were awoken by a sound every dog owner knows all too well: the gagging of their pet about to vomit.
“When you hear that, you immediately just react, so I jumped out of bed and just made sure that he didn’t throw up anywhere. Not great,” Clayton Law says. “And then I went to pick it up...and I realized: ‘There’s a lot of like half-eaten and $100 bills and $50 bills here.’”
That night was the first of many in the coming days where the Laws had the unfortunate task of sifting through their dog’s bodily waste.
They were able to find most of the bills through this unpleasant task, carefully washing and sorting the pieces to put them back together.
“We hit this point... (of) diminishing returns,” Clayton Law says. “We just kind of called it quits after two or three days.”
They pieced together as many bills as they could — they had to have more than 50% of each bill to get their money back — and their bank swapped them out. In the end, the two were able to recoup $3,550, they say.
“It was an expensive puzzle,” Clayton Law laughs.
The bank was “really nice about it,” Carrie Law says, and told them that this happens all the time.
“They said it actually happens quite a bit because money just picks up so many scents, especially if it’s used in the food industry,” she says. “I guess dogs pick up on that — they have such a good sense of smell — and something about it just drove him crazy.”
Their original home improvement project — a new fence — still hasn’t quite happened but for now, they’re settling on another one: creating art with the remaining pieces of money they couldn’t put back together.
The Laws also shared Cecil’s story to social media, where it went viral.
“We’re just happy the story’s making people laugh,” Carrie Law says. “I think a lot of people can relate to this because we’ve all had a pet or a kid that has done something silly like this in one way or the other and you just can’t be mad at them. You just have to love them anyway.”
PP
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Karearea
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- Posts: 4905
- Joined: Thu Sep 10, 2015 5:47 am
- Location: The South Island, New Zealand
Re: Animals Behaving Badly
What Minnie does at night [4:08]
Around the world thoughts shall fly In the twinkling of an eye
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OFSO
- Chief Pilot
- Posts: 18786
- Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 6:39 pm
- Location: Teddington UK and Roses Catalunia
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Re: Animals Behaving Badly
There was a TV advert tonight from the CPL (Cats Protection League) asking for donations for poor starving street cats. Unfortunately we couldn't hear details as our poor starving street cats were miouw-complaining they'd only been fed four times today, and thus drowned out the TV sound....
Re: Animals Behaving Badly
British zoo has new plan to rehabilitate its potty-mouthed parrots
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/23/travel/l ... index.html
A British wildlife park has hatched a new plan to rehabilitate its potty-mouthed parrots after they unleashed a tide of expletives.
Back in 2020, five foul-mouthed African gray parrots, donated to Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in eastern England, were isolated from the flock in an attempt to improve their language.
But, from Tuesday, the team is adopting a different, riskier approach of integrating three newly donated, cuss-happy birds – named Eric, Captain and Sheila – alongside the original five miscreants into the flock.
“When we came to move them, the language that came out of their carrying boxes was phenomenal, really bad. Not normal swear words, these were proper expletives,” the park’s chief executive, Steve Nichols, told CNN.
Related article
Parrots in wildlife park moved after swearing at visitors
“We’ve put eight really, really offensive, swearing parrots with 92 non-swearing ones,” he said.
If the new strategy works, the eight parrots could learn “all the nice noises like microwaves and vehicles reversing” that the other parrots in the flock favor, Nichols added. But if the other 92 instead pick up the expletives, “it’s going to turn into some adult aviary.”
After some time in isolation, integrating the five original birds into the flock was “mostly” successful, Nichols said, but they still curse sometimes, and even laugh afterward, mimicking the most common reaction to their foul language.
Parrots precisely echo the sounds they hear, so “six of them have got men’s voices, two of them have got ladies’ voices and when they’re all swearing it does sound really bad,” Nichols explained.
The park has installed large signs warning visitors about the parrots’ language, but Nichols said it hasn’t received a single complaint.
In fact, historically, “we did hear a lot more customers swearing at parrots than we did parrots swearing at customers,” Nichols said.
African grays are highly social parrots, forming groups of up to 1,000 birds to roost at night in the wild, and communicating with each other through various calls.
Researchers believe their intelligence is almost unparalleled in the animal kingdom, comparable to that of apes, whales and dolphins.
Expletives are particularly easy to mimic for African grays since they are almost always said in the same tone and context, without any other words surrounding them, Nichols explained.
“When you tell someone to eff off, you usually say it the same every time,” he said.
For now, the park is hoping they will learn the sounds of the flock, and mend their potty-mouthed ways.
“I’ve just left them up there and there’s lots of noises, which is brilliant … from squeaking gates to doors slamming, people laughing and mobile phones,” Nichols said.
“I’m hoping that’s part of the settling-in period, but I don’t think they will ever lose the swear because as soon as somebody swears, they’ll be swearing as well.”
PP
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/23/travel/l ... index.html
A British wildlife park has hatched a new plan to rehabilitate its potty-mouthed parrots after they unleashed a tide of expletives.
Back in 2020, five foul-mouthed African gray parrots, donated to Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in eastern England, were isolated from the flock in an attempt to improve their language.
But, from Tuesday, the team is adopting a different, riskier approach of integrating three newly donated, cuss-happy birds – named Eric, Captain and Sheila – alongside the original five miscreants into the flock.
“When we came to move them, the language that came out of their carrying boxes was phenomenal, really bad. Not normal swear words, these were proper expletives,” the park’s chief executive, Steve Nichols, told CNN.
Related article
Parrots in wildlife park moved after swearing at visitors
“We’ve put eight really, really offensive, swearing parrots with 92 non-swearing ones,” he said.
If the new strategy works, the eight parrots could learn “all the nice noises like microwaves and vehicles reversing” that the other parrots in the flock favor, Nichols added. But if the other 92 instead pick up the expletives, “it’s going to turn into some adult aviary.”
After some time in isolation, integrating the five original birds into the flock was “mostly” successful, Nichols said, but they still curse sometimes, and even laugh afterward, mimicking the most common reaction to their foul language.
Parrots precisely echo the sounds they hear, so “six of them have got men’s voices, two of them have got ladies’ voices and when they’re all swearing it does sound really bad,” Nichols explained.
The park has installed large signs warning visitors about the parrots’ language, but Nichols said it hasn’t received a single complaint.
In fact, historically, “we did hear a lot more customers swearing at parrots than we did parrots swearing at customers,” Nichols said.
African grays are highly social parrots, forming groups of up to 1,000 birds to roost at night in the wild, and communicating with each other through various calls.
Researchers believe their intelligence is almost unparalleled in the animal kingdom, comparable to that of apes, whales and dolphins.
Expletives are particularly easy to mimic for African grays since they are almost always said in the same tone and context, without any other words surrounding them, Nichols explained.
“When you tell someone to eff off, you usually say it the same every time,” he said.
For now, the park is hoping they will learn the sounds of the flock, and mend their potty-mouthed ways.
“I’ve just left them up there and there’s lots of noises, which is brilliant … from squeaking gates to doors slamming, people laughing and mobile phones,” Nichols said.
“I’m hoping that’s part of the settling-in period, but I don’t think they will ever lose the swear because as soon as somebody swears, they’ll be swearing as well.”
PP
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G~Man
- Capt
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Re: Animals Behaving Badly
Reminds me of "Simon's Cat"..... Oh and you want to waste 5 hours of your life.... go look at his youtube channel, he has 100's of videos, there went Wednesday.....lol
Life may not be the party you hoped for, but while you're here, you may as well dance. -
Karearea
- Chief Pilot
- Posts: 4905
- Joined: Thu Sep 10, 2015 5:47 am
- Location: The South Island, New Zealand
Re: Animals Behaving Badly
^ Simon's Cat is classic 
Around the world thoughts shall fly In the twinkling of an eye
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OFSO
- Chief Pilot
- Posts: 18786
- Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 6:39 pm
- Location: Teddington UK and Roses Catalunia
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Re: Animals Behaving Badly
Agree. I'm not Simon but I've also got a Simons Cat.
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G~Man
- Capt
- Posts: 1121
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- Location: California on a fire or a sailboat somewhere.
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Re: Animals Behaving Badly
So is "Henri's Cat"....here is another half day "wasted" on youtubes....
: Life may not be the party you hoped for, but while you're here, you may as well dance. -
Karearea
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Re: Animals Behaving Badly
Escaped monkey on the loose in Highland villageA monkey is on the loose in the Scottish Highlands after escaping from a wildlife park.
The Japanese macaque found a way out of its enclosure at the Highland Wildlife Park near Kincraig on Sunday.
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), which runs the park, said it had assembled a team to recapture the animal.
Members of the public have been urged not to approach it but to contact the zoological society with information.
The alarm was raised when the monkey was spotted in gardens in the nearby village of Kincraig.
Carl Nagle said he was having a "lazy Sunday morning" when he read on a local Facebook group that the village had an unusual visitor.
"I looked out the window and there he was, proud as punch, standing against the fence eating nuts that had fallen down from one of the bird feeders," he told BBC Scotland News.
"He hung out, he looked a bit shifty like he was where he wasn't supposed to be, which was true.
"He wandered around the garden a bit - we thought he'd gone but he came back and then he was up on the bird feeders trying to get into them. He was having a really good go - he worked harder at it than a squirrel."
Darren McGarry, head of living collections at RZSS, said: "If members of the public encounter the macaque they should contact comms@rzss.org.uk with more information and do not approach it."
Around the world thoughts shall fly In the twinkling of an eye
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OFSO
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Re: Animals Behaving Badly
08:00 Fat cat Marlene given breakfast
08:45 I head out to car, off to gym. Marlene says still hungry, gets a top-up. I leave.
09:10 Rachael arrives to clean, she feeds Marlene when we are away, Marlene rushes up to her, tells her we are away, so can she have breakfast please...
08:45 I head out to car, off to gym. Marlene says still hungry, gets a top-up. I leave.
09:10 Rachael arrives to clean, she feeds Marlene when we are away, Marlene rushes up to her, tells her we are away, so can she have breakfast please...
Re: Animals Behaving Badly
If you don't ask you don't get . . .
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1DC
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Re: Animals Behaving Badly
Apparently they have caught the monkey!
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Karearea
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Re: Animals Behaving Badly
They do that.OFSO wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2024 11:44 am08:00 Fat cat Marlene given breakfast
08:45 I head out to car, off to gym. Marlene says still hungry, gets a top-up. I leave.
09:10 Rachael arrives to clean, she feeds Marlene when we are away, Marlene rushes up to her, tells her we are away, so can she have breakfast please...
I had a cat named Lorenzo, whose nickname became Podgy.
And one named Carlos, aka Fat Albert.
Around the world thoughts shall fly In the twinkling of an eye